
Class _ 

Book-. Sffy^^ 



Zbc Cit^ ot tXewbur 



fitticth Bnntverear^ 

of it« 



ncorporation 



June 22*25, H. D. 1901 



Y-fO 




HON. CALEB GUSHING, 
FIRST MAYOR OF NEWBURYPORT. 



CELEBRATION OF THE 
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE CITY CHARTER 
OF NEWBURYPORT, MASS. 




JUNE TWENTY-THIRD, TWENTY- 
FOURTH, TWENTY-FIFTH, 
TWENTY-SIXTH, 
MCMI 









NEWS PUBLISHING CO. 

PRINTERS, 
NEWBURYPORT, MASS. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Frontispiece : Portrait Hon. Caleb Gushing 
Portrait Mayor Brown facing 
Preliminary Proceedings . 

Committees 

Appropriation . 
Services on Sunday 

Address of Hon. Moses Brown 

Scriptural Selection, Rev. T. J. Macfaddin 

Prayer, Rev. M. O. Patton 

Address, George F. Stone Esq, 
Exercises on Monday 

Prayer, Rev. Samuel C. Beane 

Address of Welcome, Mayor Brown . 

Scriptural Selection, Rev. Dr. H. C. Hovey 

Poem by L,othrop Withington . 

Portrait, Hon. A. E. Pillsbury facing 

Address, Hon. A. E. Pillsbury 

Portrait, Col. Eben F. Stone facing . 

Anniversary Banquet .... 

Address, Hon. John L. Bates 

Address, Hon. W. H. Moody 

Address, Lieutenant-Commander Roy S. Smith 

Address, Captain Harry Lee 

Address, Hon. A. E. Pillsbury 

Address, Hon. A. P. Gardner 



page 

5 

7-1 1 

7-8-9 

lO 

15-27 
16 

17 

17 

19-27 

31-108 

33 

34 

36 

37-40 

41 

41-72 

75 

77-108 

81 

84 

87 
88 
89 
91 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Exercises on Monday {Continued). 

Address, Rev. A. J. Teeling 

Letter frota Bishop Clark . 

Letter from William C. Todd, Esq. 

Letter from P. K. Hills, Esq. . 

Address, Hon. Harvey N. Shepard 

Address, Hon. William Reed . 

Address, Hon. Albert Currier . 

Address, Robert G. Dodge, Esq. 
Exercises on Tuesday 

Make-up of the Procession 

Athletic Sports . 

Fireworks 
Exercises on Wednesday 

Firemen's Parade 

FireAien's Muster 

Testimonial to Battleship 
Appendix .... 

Letters from Invited Guests 



PAGE 

94 
96 
98 

99 
100 
102 
104 
107 

111-123 

112-119 
121 
123 

127-131 
127 
129 
131 

135-146 
135 




HON. MOSES BROWN, 

MAYOR OF NEWBURYPORT. 



PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS 



PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS 



The closing words of Mayor Brown's inaugural address, in Jan- 
uary, 1901, were in recommendation of a suitable observance of the 
fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the city of Newburyport, — June 
24, 1 901. On the same evening that the advice was given the city 
council by the mayor, an order was adopted by that body providing 
for a special committee, to act with citizens, in taking the first steps of 
preparation. On that committee were : Mayor Brown ; President 
Withington, of the board of aldermen; President Dodge, of the com- 
mon council ; Aldermen Sargent and Pearson ; Councilmen Sullivan, 
Herlihy, Rantoul, Lunt, Frost, and Chase. A meeting of this com- 
mittee was held in January, and a call issued to all organizations, 
secular and religious, to elect representatives to act on a general com- 
mittee. It was also voted to call a mass meeting of citizens to choose 
men for the general committee. 

At a meeting of the general committee it was voted that the 
mayor should appoint sub-committees, and that an executive committee 
should have general control of the celebration. The mayor appointed 
the following committees : 

General Committee — Samuel Brookings, F. A. Morse, J. D. King, 
G. A. Johnson, William H. Welch, G. S. I^ang, C. N. Maguire, G. E. Torrey. 
C. E. Ives, C. A. Stockman, Clarence Danforth, C. W. Parker, A. E. Good- 
win, S. I. Little, B.J.Conley, W. C. O'Counell, A. H. Wells, Thomas Noyes, 
A. D. Frost, P. H. Kimball, C. R. Todd, Joseph Hudson, S. J. Ford, E. C. 
Knight, Dr. J. F. Young, Dr. S. O. Pilling, C. D. Davis, C. M. Pritchard, 
Dr. D. Foss, S. M. Miller, William J. Ray, J. B. Frost, B. G. Gerrish, Francis 
Curtis, Louis Patriquin, N. D. Dodge, E. W. Eaton, Walter Packer, J M. 
Holland, E. M. Ingalls, John Elliott, Dennis Creeden, J. E. O'Sullivan, Dr. 
John Homer, C. L. Perkins, S. A. Bridges, H. F. McGlew, W. A. Dickey, 
F. J. Hay, J. F. Moylan, John Coffey, Mrs. M. N. Blood, Miss E. M. Howe, 



8 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

E. T. Choate, Dr. C. W. Hidden, J. A. Harris, D. W. Nutting, T. B. Robbins, 
G. A. Dickey, Charles Bartlett, G. H. Bragg, G. H. Marston, D. G. Kendall, 
E. W. Tilton, Charles C. Donnell, Captain O. O. Jones, Patrick Sullivan, 
G. E. Hodgkins, G. W. I. Colby, A. E. Fowler, Dr. C. F. Johnson, J. R. 
Comley, W. F. Pottle, J. T. Robinson, G. C. Morrill, O. B. Merrill, William 
Burns, John Kane, Mary A. Toppan, Eliza A. Little, Edgar Reade, George 
Peekham, F. B. Hubbard, Rev. J. W. Dodge, F. E. Cutter, C. W. Ayers, 
A. C. Pearson, E. B. Stover, B. C. Welch, R. S. Tibbetts ; Councilmen W. W. 
Hicks, S. R. Welch, F. P. Knight, W. B. Frost, Hugh Hart, Jr., C. P. Kelley, 
S. J. Hughes, W. H. O'Brien, J. M. Chase, F. W. Dorr. 

Executive Committee. — Mayor Brown, Alderman Withington, Coun- 
cilman R. G. Dodge, L. B. Cushing, O. J. Gurney, B. F. Stanley, W. J 
Hale, H. B. Little, W. C. Cuseck, D. H. Fowle, E. P. Shaw, Jere Healey 
A. L. Huse, John W. Sargent, W. W. Pillsbury, E. P. Dodge, J. J. Currier 
D. S. Burley, Irvin Besse, T. C. Simpson, Luther Dame, Albert Currier 
William Balch, G. P. Tilton, A. G. Perkins, S. C. Reed, P. A. Merrill, C. J 
Fogg, P. B.Jackson, B. A. Appleton, R. Jacoby. 

Literary Committee. — E. P. Dodge, J. J. Currier, N. N. With- 
ington. 

Finance Committee. — Irvin Besse, D. S. Burley, J. H. Balch, Jr., 
W. F. Houston, F. E. Smith, I. W. C. Webster, W. G. Fisher, R. E. Burke, 
R. Jacoby, William Balch, J. F. Sullivan, W. R. Johnson, J. W. Allen, L. F. 
Barton, D. A. Goodwin, Jr., Moody Kimball, A. H. Beckford, Job Weston. 

Invitations to City's Guests. — T. C. Simpson, P. H. Lunt, W.J. 
Hale, G. P. Sargent. 

General Invitations. — Luther Dame, John F. Pearson, John E. 
Bailey, G. W. Manser, I. W. C. Webster, Charles L. Perkins. 

Reception. — Arthur Withington, Albert Currier, Benjamin Hale, J. O. 
Winkley, A. R. Curtis, W. A. Johnson, G. H. Plunier, Thomas Huse, Rev. 
Dr. S. C. Beane, Rev. Dr. H. C. Hovey, Nathaniel Appleton, C. W.Johnson, 
C. C. Donnell, N. N. Jones, J. F. Carens, W. H. Bayley, Lawrence W. Brown, 
J. J. Currier, E. P. Dodge, T. C. Simpson, O. J. Gurney, R. G. Dodge, Arthur 
P. Brown, Timothy Herlihy, Grosvenor T. Blood, George W. Langdon, 
H. R. Perkins, Mrs. William A. Johnson, Mrs. William H. Bayley, Miss 
Mary Toppan, Mrs. L. W. Brown, Miss Elizabeth Thurston, Miss Emily A. 
Getchell, Mrs. Joseph E. Moody, Miss Ethel Parton. 

Music— William Balch, C. A. Bliss, R. E. Burke, W. C. Coffin, A. J. 
Casey, A. E. Goodwin. 

Military and Civic Parade. — A. G. Perkins, G.W. Langdon, E. F. 
Bartlett, C. N. Safford, C. L. Ayers, Robert G. Sargent, W. G. Fisher, R. 
Jacoby, B. F. Hathaway, Jere Dineen, H. W. Bayley, J. F. Sullivan, Job 
Weston, Jere Healey, T. Harrington, G. W. Hussey. 

Fire Department Parade. — S. C. Reed, William Chase, W. W. 
Hutchins, S. T. Chase, Edgar C. Reade, G. W. Coffin, W. B. Porter. 

Dinner. — Alfred Pearson, J. D. Parsons, A. W. Rantoul, R. J. Foley, 
L. W. Sargent, 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPOKT 9 

ATHLETIC Sports.— Arthur Withington, F. P. Woodbury, R. L,. Shep- 
ard, Stanley Besse, R. A. Pop^, C. E. Fogg, J. E. Fowle, E. S. Brown, Hugo 
Parton, Dr. T. R. Healey. 

Children's Entertainment. — P. A. Merrill, Rev. W. H. Ryan, 
W. E. Andrews, L. F. Barton, W. P. Lunt, John Burke, H. P. Macintosh. 

Fireworks.— Irvin Besse, J. W. Sargent, C. H. Johnson. 

Printing and Badges.— G. P. Tilton, R. G. Dodge, H. W. Dittle, 
P. H. Blumpey, Jr., E. P. Shaw. 

Tent.— C. J. Fogg, B. G. Davis, C. F. Creeden. 

Decorations. — Alfred Pearson, O. F. Hatch, J. F. Sullivan, J. 
T. Lunt. 

Transportation and Carriages.— P. B.Jackson, William Barrett, 
W. F. Gillett, E. P. Shaw. 

Pr^SS. — B. A. Appleton, F. E. Smith, J. E. Mannix, C. W. Johnson, 
G. R. Sargent. 

Official Program.— D. H. Fowle, Arthur Withington, W. C. Cuseck, 
G. P. Tilton. 

Yacht Race.— R. Jacoby, William Balch, G. F. Avery, H. W. Little, 
Jere Healey. 

Mr. James V. Felker, treasurer of the city, was chosen treasurer 
of the celebration, and Mr. Henry W. Little, assistant city clerk, acted 
as secretary for all the committees. 

The sub-committees held meetings extending over four or five 
months previous to the days of the celebration, and the vs^ork done 
was most meritorious. 

The executive committee, after much debate and several changes 
in details, agreed to the following program : 

Sunday, June 23.— Union service in City Hall, at 7:30, p. m., under the 

charge of the pastors of the various churches. 
Monday, June 24. — Salute at sunrise. 

Exercises at City Hall; oration by Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury. 

Dinner at 2 o'clock, in the armory. 

Reception at City Hall, at 8, p. m. 
Tuesday, June 25. — Civic and military parade, at 10, a. m. 

Athletic sports, at 3, p. m. 

Fireworks on Washington park, in the evening. 
Wednesday, June 26. — Old fashioned firemen's muster. 

The executive committee, also, secured the presence of the battle- 
ship Massachusetts, oft' the mouth of the river, through the good 



lO 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



offices of Hon. William H. Moody and Secretary of the Navy John 
D. Long. The Massachusetts was commanded by Captain H. N. 
Manney, and he and his officers were most cordially received and 
entertained, and all visitors to the battleship during its three days' stay 
felt welcome guests. 

The following appropriations were made by the executive com- 
mittee : 



Medals, 

Salute, 

Fireworks, 

Sports, 

Music, 

Firemeu's day, 

Decorations, 

Balloon ascension. 

Parks (set aside for repair damage) 

Printing, 

Yacht race, 

Prizes for trades procession, 

Dinner to soldiers and sailors. 

Extra horses for steam engines. 

General staff of Captain Perkins, 

Carriages, .... 

Badges, .... 

Invited guests, dinner committee 

Towboat, .... 

School children transportation. 

Contingent fund, . 

Incidentals, .... 

Grand stand. 



30 

350 
250 
700 

550 
450 

60 
200 
200 
150 

50 
250 

22.50 

30 
150 

45 

50 
100 
100 
300 
100 
100 

.337-50 



The city had appropriated $2,250, and in addition to this sum the 
finance committee had raised over $3,000. The work of this com- 
mittee was of the most laborious kind, and the members, and especially 
the chairmen, Mr. D. S. Burley at the beginning, and Mr. Irvin Besse 
after the former resigned, desen-e great credit for the success attained. 

Mr. George P. Tilton, as chairman of the committee on printing 
and badges, designed the medal which was struck to commemorate 
the event, and his work in preparation of the official program was 
most valuable. To discriminate further in mentioning; those who did 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT II 

preliminary work would involve too much the account of detail work. 
This work was so thoroughly done, however, that by Saturday, June 
22, the city had such a festive appearance as it had never known be- 
fore. Hundreds of wandering sons had returned, and the main streets 
were decorated with electric displays and flags and bunting galore. 
The weather alone was threatening, and Saturday and Sunday a heavy 
mist hung over the city. 



SERVICES ON SUNDAY 



SERVICES ON SUNDAY 



On Sunday morning, in all the churches, there were appropriate 
services, and in the evening City Hall w^as filled with a tremendous 
throng. The sei"\'ice had been arranged by the clergymen of the city, 
a committee of whom, — Rev. S. C. Beane, D. D., Rev. H. C. Hovey, 
D. D., and Rev. Myron O. Patton, — had special charge. 

The hall was handsomely decorated. Long streamers of colored 
bunting, fastened at the center chandelier, were draped to the bal- 
conies. Along the front of the balconies was a very pretty festooning 
of bunting, a delicately tinted fan-shaped drapery at the bottom being 
used to good effect. The walls of the hall were partially hidden behind 
colored bunting. Over the proscenium arch was a handsome arrange- 
ment of American flags, in the center being a design representing an 
eagle flying with wings wide spread. In its beak it carried a streamer, 
on either end of which appeared the figures "1851-1901." Over the 
king of birds was the word " Welcome," and beneath, "Our 50th 
Anniversary." 

Mayor Brown presided in an able manner. Seated with him on 
the platform were Hon. Albert Currier, who was chairman of the 
board of selectmen when Newburyport was incorporated a city, of 
which he later served as mayor ; Hon. W. A. Johnson and Hon. 
Elisha P. Dodge, also ex-mayors; Rev. Dr. H. C. Hovey, Rev. Rich- 
ard Wright, Rev. G. H. Miner, Rev. T. James Macfaddin, Rev. E. E. 
Shoemaker, Rev. Frank G. Alger, Rev. Dr. S. C. Beane, Rev. Myron 
O. Patton, Rev. D. H. Woodard, Rev. Arthur H. Wright, Rev. H. G. 
Alley, Rev. Charles P. Mills, Rev. Dr. C. E. Lord, of this city; and 
Rev. W. F. Emery, of Prescott, Wis. ; Rev. W. A. Rand, of Sea- 



l6 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

brook, N. H. There were also on the platform the 150 members of 
the Newburyport Choral Union, composed of some of the best singers 
of the city. 

At the opening of the meeting Dr. Hovey stated that the service 
had been arranged by a committee of the clergy of the city, and fol- 
lowed this with a number of suggestions. 

"America" was then sung by the Choral Union and audience, after 
which Mayor Brown spoke as follows : 

ADDRESS OF HON. MOSES BROWN 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I hav^e been requested by the reverend clergy who have arranged 
this gathering to say, at the beginning, a few words of introduction 
and congratulation, and I need not assure you that it gives ine pleas- 
ure to do their bidding. 

It is most fitting that on the eve of our anniversary we should 
meet together to render service of prayer and praise to Almighty God. 

In His providence He has not ordained that our city should, thus 
far, be great in wealth or population, but He has dowered her with 
that far richer blessing, a good name. He has given to Newburyport 
a history which, reaching back through city and through town and 
commingling with that of old Newbury, more than 250 years in all, 
is, even in New England, a rare inheritance. 

He has bestowed upon her nature's beauty in fairest degree, and 
He has blessed her with thousands of loyal sons and daughters who 
never forget their honorable parentage, and who, whether remaining 
here at home or dispersed over the v^^ide world, are always ready to 
chant their mother's loveliness with filial pride ; and so, tonight, they 
who may claim the birthright and they who are adopted children, are 
fitly met for song and for thanksgiving. 

The order of service has been placed in every hand, and the exer- 
cises will proceed without further announcement or introduction. 

I should therefore, at this time, make some reference to the gentle- 
man who will make the address of the evening. 

Mr. George Frederick Stone, of Chicago, is, as you are generally 
aware, of Newburyport birth. Throughout his busy life he has kept 
in touch with his native town. All that concerns her is very dear to 
him, and I doubt not he is glad to be at home with us' tonight. 

I know that you would wish me to express to him a hearty wel- 
come, in the name of the city of Newburyport and in behalf of this 
great congregation. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 1 7 

Rev. T. James Macfaddin then recited the following selection, 
I. Corinthians, 13th chapter: 

" Gifts are nothing without charity." 

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not 
charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, 
and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove 
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give 
my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 

Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; charity envieth not ; charity 
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. 

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily 
provoked, thinketh no evil ; 

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; 

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
things. 

Charity never faileth ; but whether there be prophecies, they shall 
fail ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowl- 
edge, it shall vanish away. 

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part 
shall be done away. 

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child ; but 
when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

For now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to face : now I 
know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the greatest of 
these is charity. 

The Choral Union, under the leadership of Mr. Emil Mollen- 
hauer, sang " The heavens are telling," from Haydn's " Creation," the 
trio being sustained by Warren C. Stanw^ood, Miss Elizabeth C. 
Adams, and Richard G. Adams. This was followed by a prayer, 
offered by Rev. Myron O. Patton, of the Prospect street church, 
who said : 

PRAYER OF REV. MYRON O. PATTON 

God of our fathers, who, since time began hast presided over the 
destinies of Thy children, we bow before Thee tonight in grateful 
acknowledgment of that love and mercy which has been the hope and 
inspiration of our lives and of the lives of our fathers, through the 
years ; and in worshipful adoration of Thee, who art the light and life 



lb FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

of men ; and unto Thee we dedicate this service of thanksgiving and 
praise. Thou art our God ; Thou art our Father; Thou hast founded 
the heavens and the earth ; Thou art the Infinite One ; none governs 
but Tliee. Yet, all-powerful as Thou art, Thou art still the friend of 
man. We rejoice in Thy love; we rejoice in Thy care ; we rejoice in 
anticipation of the joys of a fuller. and freer intercourse with Thee, 
when we shall know Thee as Thou desirest that we should know 
Thee. 

We thank Thee that Thou didst lead our fathers into this goodly 
land ; and we rejoice that, through all the vicissitudes and discourage- 
ments which they were called upon to face, they trusted in Thee, and 
reared here their sacred altars of Truth to Thy holy name. W^e feel to 
rejoice tonight that the fathers of this ancient town laid its foundations 
deep in righteousness, and that the sons and davighters who have 
sprung from their loins have kept those fovmdations secui^e through 
the years, and have kept the sacred flame of worship burning upon 
the altars of Faith. And we thank Thee that to this day the people 
of our city believe "that righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin 
is a reproach to any people." 

Again we rejoice in the knowledge that, during the passage of the 
years, brotherly love and fellowship have characterized the relations 
of our people, one for the other, regardless of differences in religious 
belief and practice, and that people of all faiths have striven together 
to presei've the " unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace." And 
wdiile we would say it in no spirit of worldly pride, yet we would not 
let a false humility rob us of the right to rejoice, under Thee, in the 
spirit of fraternity and mutual helpfulness which characterizes the 
intercourse between the churches today, as well as in the delightful 
spirit of unity in diversity which is the glory of the Christian religion. 

Once more we rejoice, our Father, in the knowledge that our 
people have not only been a Godly people, but possessed of thrift and 
a generous spirit ; that their interests have been as broad as human 
need, their sympathies as deep as the love of God, their hospitality 
and patriotism as boundless and fervent as they have been intelligent 
and sane. 

For all this and much more, O God, we thank Thee, tonight. 
We thank Thee for our homes; we thank Thee for our churches, of 
all creeds ; we thank Thee for our philanthropic institutions ; we thank 
Thee for our schools ; for our varied industries ; for the honored 
names which adorn our city's history. We thank Thee for the integ- 
rity of our business men ; for their unselfish effoils on behalf of our 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 1 9 

city's welfare ; for the practical charity of our churches and our many 
fraternal orders. We bless Thee for all that is good in our past, and 
beseech Thee that Thou wilt abundantly bless and guide us in the 
future, which is always ours. Bless the work of Thy churches in this 
city ; bless and prosper our people in material as well as in spiritual 
things; bless those upon whom now rests the responsibility of our 
city's welfare, — the mayor and his advisoi's and assistants, the city 
government and all officials ; and may the future see the door of oppor- 
tunity and usefulness, in behalf of Thyself and those whom Thou hast 
made in Thy likeness, open to greater, grander, and more blessed 
things, for Thy name's sake. Amen. 

The Choral Union sang the "Jerusalem" chorus from Gounod's 
" Gallia," Miss Elizabeth C. Adams taking the solo part, and the 
" Sanctus " f rom Gounod's " Saint Cecilia " mass, Warren C. Stan- 
wood sustaining the solo. 

Then came an address by Mr. George F. Stone, of Chicago, 
who spoke as follows : 

ADDRESS OF GEORGE FREDERICK STONE 

Mr. Mayor., Ladies and Gefitlemen : 

It is altogether appropriate that the first note in the celebration of 
the fiftieth anniversary of this municipality should be the note of 
praise to Him who was the God of our fathers and is our God, — " for 
whom are all things and by whom are all things," " in whose sight a 
thousand years are but as yesterday when it is passed, or as a watch in 
the night." 

The law, with its instinctive perception of what the public wel- 
fare required, early made exact provision for the creation of artificial 
persons, styled corporations, when fovmd advantageous and necessary, 
to promote by a perpetual succession, entire and forever, those rights 
and immunities which, if granted only to individuals, would upon 
their death be utterly lost and extinct. 

Law is the beneficent guardian of personal rights, conserving 
under various forms those rights according to changing conditions in 
human life and society. 

Fifty years ago the public needs, public spirit, and multiplying 
wants of Newburyport called for the exercise of corporate powers, and 
on May 24, 1851, the corporation under the title " City of Newbury- 
port" was created, and on the 24th day of June, 1S51, the city govern- 
ment was inaug-urated. 



20 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Events or persons, in and of themselves, are of trifling or no sig- 
nificance. They become sublime and immortal only when vitally 
connected w^ith an undying principle, and then only take their places 
in the radiant and inspiring pages of history. It was not that Mary 
Chilton stepped on Plymouth rock first of the company on board the 
Mayflower that preserved her name and gave to that act an unfading 
heroism, but because Mary Chilton was linked forevermore with the 
noblest conceptions and aspirations of manhood and womanhood, with 
liberty, with defiance to those, whether kings, queens, or parliaments, 
who would shackle conscience, deny man's natural rights, or close a 
single avenue of advancement to the lowliest of the human race. It is 
because that young girl belonged to a company of men and women 
who were unconquerable, who represented the hope of mankind, and 
who braved all for conscience sake ; who were baptized with freedom 
and anointed from on high ; to whom hardships had no terrors, if to 
avoid them they must stifle conscience and curb ambition ; — nay, to 
them the time had come when privations, and indeed martyrdom 
itself, were sweet, if the soul could breathe its native air and gain 
unhindered access to Him whose service is perfect freedom. This is 
the reason that Peregrine White, the sweet babe of the Mayflower, is 
better remembered than Virginia Dare, the first child of English 
parents on American soil, born in the Virginia colony and grand- 
daughter of the governor of the settlement. The chief object of the 
colonists under Sir Walter Raleigh was the cultivation of potatoes and 
tobacco. The one supreme animating object of the northern colonists 
of the Mayflower company was the establishment of religious 
freedom. 

The elm tree is only one among the trees of the forest, but when 
Washington took command of the Continental army under the great 
elm in Cambridge, in 1775, that tree was clothed with immortal 
honors and accorded a place in history. 

In this view, the city of Newburyport challenges our respect and 
admiration. 

It is impossible to place a proper and intelligent estimate upon 
the history of the city without a consideration, however brief, of its 
pre-municipal life. 

We trace with pride our origin to a patriotically pious and 
adventurous ancestry, composed of scholars, statesmen, soldiers, farm- 
ers, and merchants, — to a long line of clergy, who with rare fidelity 
and ability proclaimed the everlasting gospel of Our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. Among those divines I would mention Jonathan Par- 
sons, Daniel Dana, John Lowell, Thomas Carey, John Andrews, 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 21 



Jonathan F. Stearns, Luther F. Dimmick, Leonard Withington, 
Daniel T, Fiske, Randolph Campbell, Thomas B. Fox, Thomas 
Wentworth Higginson, Charles J. Bowen. Newbury and Newbury- 
port were favored with instructors of a high order, the reputation of 
some of whom extends beyond the limits of the state. Among them 
were Somerby, Walsh, Page, Howard, Todd, Wells, Luther Dame, 
and Miss Mary Ann Shaw. 

It is also worthy to be recorded on this occasion that Samuel 
Holden Parsons, a major general in the Revolutionary army, was a 
son of Rev. Jonathan Parsons, the first minister of the Old South 
church. General Parsons was associated with Nathan Dane and 
Menasseh Cutler in drafting the celebrated ordinance of 1787, against 
which the unscrupulous ambition and recklessness of party strife 
surged and beat, and surged in vain. Everlasting thanks for the 
wisdom which conceived, and for the fortitude and constancy which 
nurtured, this product of American patriotism, baptized in the name 
of freedom, proclaiming that in all the territory of the great and mar- 
velous Northwest no slave trade should be carried on, and that all 
men living and who might choose to live where the north wind blows 
should breathe forever the air of freedom. This immortal document, 
in its scope and power, in its lofty and patriotic purpose, in its pro- 
found significance, is second only in its relation to the welfare of the 
people to the Declaration of Independence. The latter was a sublime 
announcement in the face of the ages, thundering against throne and 
tyrant ; the former caught up the pregnant and glorious inspiration 
and wrote it again, in letters of living light, across the continent. 

Here was born and here for many years lived William Lloyd 
Garrison, the great apostle of emancipation, who stood like a rock in 
the tempest of the "irrepressible conflict," and who with an unquench- 
able and sublime heroism exclaimed, in the face of a terrible hostility, 
" I will not retract, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be 
heard." 

Here was the home of Theophilus Parsons, Simon Greenleaf, and 
Caleb Gushing, whose decisions and briefs hold an important place in 
the science of jurisprudence, and whose learning adorns the literature 
of their country. 

Our merchants were known in the great markets of the world, 

and were men of untiring industry, wise economy, and of marked 

ability, and who possessed a native grace and dignity of manner 

which gave them entrance into the most favored circles, and who 

. commanded universal respect. 



22 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

A city is not great because it is big, but because of its men and 
its women. From them are derived the sources of its strength and its 
prosperity. This country is not great merely because of its prairies 
and mountains and great lakes, but because of its men. 

Athens was not great because of its population, wealth, or trade, 
but because of Socrates, Pericles, Demosthenes, Phidias, and Aris- 
tides, who have carried its fame down through the centuries. 

Our character is the crystallization of our national history. From 
the loins of our illustrious past, Mr. Mayor, sprung the worthy and 
distinguished descendant whose fiftieth birthday we celebrate. 

It is not my province to recount in detail the history of the old 
town or of the city ; that will be given by those far better qualified 
than myself for the interesting and fascinating task. 

Marvelous changes have taken place during the last fifty years, 
which comprise by far the most eventful period of the history of our 
country. Since 1S51 thirteen states have been admitted to the union, 
comprising 3,616,484 acres, 3,431,508 acres more than were com- 
prised in the original thirteen states. The population of the United 
States in 18=^0 was 23,000,000; in 1900, 76,000,000. The number of 
miles of railroad in this country has increased from 10,982, in 1851, 
to 190,000, in 1900. There are more miles of railroad in the state of 
Illinois than were in the union in 1851. 

Our exports of domestic merchandise in 185 1 amounted in value 
to about $1 79,000,000, and in 1900, $1 ,371 ,000,000. Our total exports 
and imports during the year 1851 amounted in value to $400,000,000, 
and in 1900 to $2,224,000,000. The aggregate length of wire oper- 
ated by telephone is estimated to be, in round numbers, 1,500,000 
miles. The number of miles of wire used for telegraphic communi- 
cation is over 1,100,000. The number of messages sent over these 
wires in the year 1900 aggregated about 70)OC)OiOOO' I do not pro- 
pose to dwell at length upon statistics. I have mentioned these few 
as sufficient to indicate the remarkable development that has taken 
place in this countr}^ in mercantile and industrial circles during the 
last fifty years. 

Caleb Gushing was the first mayor of the new city. Public spirit 
was revived, but nothing except ordinary municipal events occurred 
until 1861, when the firing upon Sumter startled the North, and the 
call of President Lincoln for 75,000 troops imposed upon the city the 
discharge of grave responsibilities. Newburyport, true to her history, 
promptly responded to the call. Among the first, if not the very first, 
of those to report for duty was Captain Albert W. Bartlett and his 
company. This gallant soldier, with the men he could muster, 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 23 

marched to the Eastern raih-oad depot early in the morning of the day 
after the call was made, — a drizzling, gloomy morning, — and pro- 
ceeded to Boston, reporting to our great war governor, John A. 
Andrew. The city filled its quota, and stood loyally by the govern- 
ment throughout the war, — from iS6i to 1865. The Newbury port 
men were in the thick of the conflict, and bore themselves, without 
exception, with honor to themselves and the city which they repre- 
sented. I well remember Captain Bartlett, a gentlemanly soldier, 
refined and graceful in his bearing, slight in form, modest in his every 
attitude, affable and winning in his intercourse with his fellow men ; 
of few words, yet always responsive ; of pleasing expression, of 
unfailing courtesy ; free from even a suggestion of ostentation. He 
impressed me as a man who would unflinchingly do his duty at any 
cost. He was of light complexion and of erect carriage. He gave 
himself to his country. He was shot at Antietam. 

"Soldier, rest, thy warfare o'er, — 

Sleep the sleep that kuows no breaking, 
Dream of battle-fields no more, 
Days of danger, nights of waking. 

I dare not undertake to mention the names of others who 
marched to the war for fear of doing injustice to some. Troops and 
troops of names come flocking up and crowding the avenues of my 
memory. 

The imperishable part of a nation's history is her military record. 
Tariffs, army bills, navy bills have their importance, and occupy their 
appropriate prominence in the annals of a country. The rise and fall 
of political parties, the progress of various reforms in church and 
state, fierce discussions in halls of justice and legislation, all constitute 
an essential part of a people's greatness, filling the historic pages and 
making up her record for the guidance of future statesmen and rulers. 
These are preserved chiefly upon the shelves of libraries and in 
institutions of learning; they are not burnt into the hearts of a people 
and kept as a precious legacy from a sacred past. When all other 
mementos of remote time shall fall into oblivion, when legislators, 
statesmen, authors, jurists, merely as such, lie forgotten, the memory 
of battles lost and won, of valor on sea and on land, of great captains 
and heroic soldiers will retain its glory; aye, will gather brightness as 
it rolls down the years of time, scattering sparks of inspiration among 
the generations as they come and go. 

How many pages of English history are forgotten while are 
remembered the names that were not born to die: of the youthful 



24 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Black Prince Edward and Henry V. ; of Cromwell and Wellington ; 
the battle-fields of Crecy and Agincourt, of Dunbar and Waterloo ! 
So throughout all time, in sacred and profane history, while, one after 
another, events great and small will be torn away from memory's 
grasp, still she will cling with an eternal fondness and pride to the 
principle and to instances of self-sacrifice and enduring valor. The 
principle of self-sacrifice is intensely and divinely vital in itself; hence 
every action animated by it will survive the lapse of time. Its gi'eat- 
est and most complete fulfillment is in the life and death of Him who 
breathed these words of exalted patriotism, "Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." 

The period from 1861 to 1865 was a momentous one, and its 
events almost wholly absorbed the energies of the people of the North. 
During this eventful time was recorded in ineffaceable and living 
characters the history of Lincoln, and Grant, and Sherman, and Sheri- 
dan ; of Farragut and Porter ; of Logan, and Custer, and Thomas, and 
Meade; of the history of the campaigns of the armies of the Potomac, 
of the Cumberland and the West ; of the march to the sea; of Shiloh ; 
of Vicksburg ; of forts Henry and Donelson ; of Fisher's hill and 
Cedar creek ; of sieges, and battles, and skirmish lines ; of days of 
danger and nights of waking; of partings of lovers and maidens, of 
farewells of husbands and wives ; of the proclamation of Abraham 
Lincoln giving freedom to four millions of a persecuted race, and 
wiping forever from the national escutcheon the blot of human 
slavery ; of Gettysburg and of Appomattox ; of the downfall of a 
rebellion as wicked as ever stained the annals of any people ; of a 
reunited country, and of the perpetuity of the union with its countless 
and unspeakable and eternal blessings; — and this record shall never 
fade away ; it shall grow brighter and brighter as the years go by. 
When time shall be no more ; when all things transitory shall have 
passed away ; when the last sound on earth has been stilled ; then the 
bells of heaven will ring in commemoration of American patriotism 
and the undying fame of the American soldier. 

Where can be found in all the history of adventure or knighthood 
anything more thrilling or heroic than Greely's expedition to the north 
pole? The world was amazed at its revelations, and all nations paid 
high tribute to his unfaltering, undismayed, and sublime courage. 
His spirit rose to every dreadful emergency, and true to the highest 
ideals, true to itself, triumphed over every form of suffering, and 
never surrendered or quailed in the face of untold and unimaginable 
horrors. All honor to Brigadier General Adolphus W. Greely, of 
Newburyport ! 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 25 

From 1 868 to 1882 the public library, founded by Josiah Little in 
1854, received valuable donations of books and money; the names of 
the donors will be given in subsequent proceedings. The reading 
room was established by the liberality of William C. Todd, who on 
several occasions has shown a deep and wise interest in the welfare of 
his fellow men by many munificent donations, chiefly among which is 
the gift of $50,000 and a valuable piece of real estate for the endow- 
ment of a hospital. 

We are justly pi'oud of Newburyport ; of her sons and her 
daughters; of their scholarship, their courage, their patriotism, and 
their piety. 

"As the shell upou the mountain's height sings of the sea, — 
So do I ever — leagues and leagues away, — 
So do I ever, wandering where I may be — 

Sing, oh my home, sing, oh my home of thee !" 

But, Mr. Mayor, while we rejoice in the progress of the city, and 
the many improvements which during the fifty years have been made, 
and the wise administration of its affairs by its successive chief magis- 
trates, we are yet pleased to remember that some things have not 
changed. "Its meadows and marshes, in some places three miles 
broad," made known in the mother country by one William Wood, 
who returned to England in 1635 after four years' residence in Massa- 
chusetts, are about the same. Oldtown hill and Plum Island sound, 
and the spot on the northern bank of Parker river where, one morn- 
ing in the spring of 1635, Nicholas Noyes first leaped on shore, have 
not materially changed since that date, 266 years ago. 

" Still the old tempests rage around the mountains, 
And ocean billows as of old appear. 
The roaring wood and the resounding fountains 
Time hath not silenced in his long career. 
For nature is the same as e'er." 

It is a delight to look out on the wide, great sea, and across the 
meadows and over the oozing marshes; to hear the waters gurgling 
in and out of creeks and inlets along the graceful, grassy shore ; to 
see comfortable haystacks in simple beauty set; to smell the new hay 
as it goes pitching into big barns; to look at stout oxen, thoughtful- 
eyed, standing in the fields, patient, ready, and determined; to watch 
the cows carrying home huge, swinging bags of milk at the close of a 
long summer day, now and then stopping in the dusty road to slash 
her leathery tongue against a savage greenhead, and then with a quiet, 
4 



26 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

gentle dignity walk with measured step to some roadside pool to cool 
her limbs and wet her slimy chops. The lowing herd winding up 
the low walled lane goes swinging into long barns, through which 
ocean breezes sweep, then filing to their stalls, munch and crunch the 
rich and succulent stalks gathered from the corn field near by. Now, 
how relishing and ravishing the myriad sounds, sounds that just pre- 
cede the nightfall and usher in the restful hours for man and beast and 
bird. Great shadows from darkening sky are softly covering moor 
and mountain, and the world, like a tired mother, is falling asleep. 
Here come milkers, sturdy boys and girls, who have just come from 
studying Xenophon's Anabasis, conic sections, plane and spherical 
trigonometry, and who will be poets, painters, philosophers, states- 
men, and jurists. I can hear the straight streams of milk drumming 
the bottoms of shiny pails, while the sleek and sleepy, kindly creat- 
ures look dreamily and dozily content. Soon the white foam is look- 
ing over the rims of deep pails, and the ruddy milkers go sauntering 
to the old vine-clad fiirm house. The farmer, brown and hearty, 
glows with happiness and health — 



" His wealth is health and perfect ease, 
Aud conscieuce clear liis chief defense." 



I can hear the melody from the white-throated bobolink, pouring 
over emerald wave and dewy mead ; the song sparrow thrilling 
through the hours : the warbling thrush from yonder bush singing an 
evening hymn. The sea gull, sailing inland, spreading its reaching 
wings, seems to ponder upon the loveliness of the scene. 



"Glad pulse in nature's seething, tidal voice. 
It knocks at my heart's door and bids my soul rejoice." 



Mr. Mayor, Newburyport, I believe, will continue to advance in 
all that makes for the highest civilization. Her sons and her daughters 
in the generations to come will be worthy of their ancestry only as 
they are loyal to the great principles which guided the fathers. The 
congratulations, the demonstrations of the hour will ere long fade 
away and be forgotten, but the principles upon which our fathers 
builded will remain. Let us not forsfet that — 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 27 

" Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it. 
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." 
Let us remember that 



" The tumult and the shouting dies, 
The captains and the kings depart ; 

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice — 
An humble and a contrite heart. 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget, lest we forget ! " 



EXERCISES ON SECOND DAY 



EXERCISES ON SECOND DAY 



A mist hung over the city on Sunday evening, and the battleship 
Massachusetts was awaited with anxiety. The people of the city 
were awakened on Monday morning by the booming of cannon which 
welcomed the anniversary and the sun. A salute of fifty guns was 
being fired on Washington park by John Dow and Charles W. Page. 
The church bells soon added their chimes to the jubilation, and the 
whole city was awake. 

The pealing of bells and cannon had scarcely ceased before the 
fire alarm sounded a special signal that the battleship Massachusetts 
was off the bar. At 7 130 o'clock in the morning the steamer Cygnet, 
— with the chairman of the reception committee, President Withington 
of the board of aldermen ; Judge T. C. Simpson : Alderman Luther 
Dame ; ex- Aldermen Jere Healey, Irvin Besse, and James F. Carens ; 
Mr. George P. Tilton, Mr. H. R. Perkins, Mr. Arthur L. Huse, City 
Marshal F. L. Lattime, Captain Patrick Creeden ; Mr. W. C. Coffin, 
of the Herald, and other newspaper representatives, — went down the 
river to greet the guests from the navy. 

By direction of Executive Officer Baker, of the Massachusetts, 
the diminutive Cygnet was soon safely housed under the shelter of the 
mighty warship, and soon the committee selected to welcome the 
visitors ascended the steps, where President Withington extended to 
Captain Manney, in a few well chosen words, the freedom of the city 
during his stay in this vicinity. 

Accompanying President Withington was Judge Simpson, of the 
special invitation committee, and Alderman Dame, of the general 
invitation committee. 



32 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Captain Manney accepted this evidence of good will on the part 
of the citizens of Newburyport, and invited the representatives to his 
cabin, vs^here arrangements were made and the several features of the 
anniversary were talked over. 

The officers of the Massachusetts were unable to attend the fore- 
noon exercises at City Hall. Later in the day Messrs. George W. 
Langdon, Nathaniel N. Jones, Arthur P. Brown, Grosvenor T. 
Blood, and Timothy Herlihy, of the reception committee, took the 
Cygnet and brought ashore Captain H. N. Manney, Lieutenant Com- 
mander Roy C. Smith, Lieutenant George R. Salisbury, Captain of 
Marines Harry Lee, Lieutenant C. J. Lang, Paymaster W. G. Littell, 
Assistant Surgeon B. L. Wright, Ensign L. Shane, Ensign Ward 
Kenneth Wortman, and Ensign C. Deligeorges of the royal Greek 
navy. 

Commemorative exercises were held at City Hall, beginning about 
lo :30, Monday. 

Mayor Brown presided, and with him on the platform were the 
following invited guests; Lieutenant Governor Bates; Congressman 
W. H. Moody; Hon. A. E. Pillsbury, of Boston; ex-Mayor John J. 
Laskey, of Portsmouth ; M. D. Toppan, president of the board of 
aldermen of Brockton ; Representative Moody Kimball, of Newbury- 
port ; Representative Pettingell, of Salisbury; Representative Brown, 
of Ipswich ; Representative Davis, of Amesbury; Hon. Harvey N. 
Shepard, of Boston ; Charles W. Ordway, Richard Newell, and Sam. 
Rogers, selectmen of West Newbury ; Richard T. Noyes, Claude H. 
Tarbox, and Charles A. Cheney, selectmen of Newbury ; C. O. 
Noyes, chairman of the selectmen of Georgetown ; George A. Scho- 
field, chairman of tlie selectmen of Ipswich ; Hon. Albert Currier, 
Hon. John J. Currier, Hon. William A. Johnson, Hon. Thomas C. 
Simpson, Hon. J. Otis Winkley, Hon. Ellsha P. Dodge, Hon. Orrin 
J. Gurney, Hon. George H. Plumer, ex-mayors of Newburyport ; 
Rev. Arthur J. Teeling, of Lynn; Alexander Pattilo, of Gloucester; 
Austin A. Spofford, of Lawrence ; Captain Edmund Bartlett, member 
of the tirst board of fire engineers; President Arthur Withington of the 
board of aldermen; President Robert G. Dodge of the common coun- 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 33 

cil ; and the following other members of the reception committee : 
City Solicitor J. C. M. Bayley, N. N. Jones, Esq., Rev. Dr. H. C. 
Hovey ; James F. Carens and Arthur P. Brown, ex-presidents of the 
common council ; Grosvenor T. Blood, Alderman Luther Dame, ex- 
Alderman Charles L. Perkins, Captain William H. Bayley, Mr. 
Nathaniel Appleton, Captain Lawrence W. Brown ; also. Rev. Dr. 
S. C. Beane ; Mr. N. N. Withington ; and the Newburyport Choral 
Union, Mr. Emil Mollenhauer, director. 

The guests and reception committee were escorted to seats on the 
stage by City Messenger Frank H. Rundlett. 

The program opened with an overture, " The Beautiful Galatea," 
Suppe, by Nason's orchestra, D. P. Nason, leader. 

Rev. Dr. Samuel C. Beane, of the Unitarian church, offered 
prayer, as follows : 

PRAYER OF REV. DR. SAMUEIv C. BEANE 

O God ! Thou hast been our dwelling place through all genera- 
tions. Year after year and century upon century Thine almighty and 
unfailing care has been over the sons of men. Thy children. Beneath 
Thy providence they have gathered themselves into communities, have 
established order and engaged in mutual helpfulness and learned the 
enjoyment of common tasks and the bestowal of mutual benefits, and 
progressing to nobler manhood and brotherhood, have given new 
value to Thy great gift of life. 

We gather here today to thank Thee on this anniversary for the 
inestimable social estate that has fallen to our possession. We bless 
Thee, O Thou Infinite Giver, for the memory of the faithful men and 
women who long ago planted this settlement by the river and the sea ; 
for their strong souls and brave virtues, whereby the beginning of 
civilized life here became honorable and fraught with good results; 
for the ventures of our fathers on land and sea that enlarged their 
minds and brought comfort and competence to their homes ; for their 
religious convictions and hopes that cheered the hardships of their 
days and proudly forecast the future of those that should come after 
them ; for the good name and fame which gave to the founders and 
their children a high place among the inhabitants of the land ; and for 
the inestimable inheritance of integrity and learning, of freedom and 
opportunity, into which it is our privilege to enter. 

5 



34 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Today we rejoice in this city of our love, the late fruit of the 
fathei's' planting; for its beneficent government, for the good and true 
men w^ho gave shape and value to our municipal charter, and who 
early entered into the administration of our civic affairs; and we pray 
that their examples and the rich estate they have left to us may be 
sacredly esteemed and cherished. May good and able men always 
serve us, not for themselves but for the people. May the demagogue 
and the self-seeker have no place in our public affairs. May every 
high office reflect the high ideal for which it stands. 

O God of the fathers, God of Thy present children, help us all as 
citizens to demand and further the things that make for purity and 
peace, for moral ideal and religious principle, for human dignity, 
honor, and good will ; and whether our city in numbers be great or 
small, illustrious or obscure, may it be increasingly characterized by 
the nobleness of its people, and its efficiency in the highest and most 
precious things that men can strive for, that thus our influence may 
contribute to the divine force in the world. May our children and 
children's children be nourished by wisdom, purity, and virtue. May 
all our good institutions have Thy constant blessing and our unsleep- 
ing devotion. 

God, the scepter of Thy kingdom is a righteous scepter. Thou 
lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. May there be no unholy 
violence among us, no hurtful discords. May there be no complaining 
in our streets. 

And now we turn to Thee as the exhaustless fountain of all our 
good thus far, of all our hopes and promises for the years to come. 
May our thanksgivings and rejoicings be so pure and sincere that they 
shall be acceptable to Thee. For Thine we are, and Thine is the 
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 

Mayor Brown then delivered the following address of welcome : 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY MAYOR BROWN 

Ladies and Gentle?nen : 

We are assembled on this summer morning to celebrate a golden 
jubilee. Just fifty years ago this day and hour, and within these walls, 
the first city government of Newburyport was organized. 

1 make no mention here of the causes which impelled our fathers 
to give up the ancient, simple form of local government which, in 
principle, they had inherited through more than thirty generations, I 
shall not dwell upon the issues or the circumstances of the first elec- 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 



tion, except in one particular. The people sent their best of manhood, 
their best of citizenship, to that first council. 

Its head was General Caleb Gushing, then lately returned from 
the war with Mexico. The career of that famous man is familiar 
history. In the decade preceding the war he had represented the 
Essex district during several terms in the national congress ; he had 
been minister to Ghina. At the time of the incorporation he was a 
member of the general court, and subsequently, in the cabinet of a 
president, and in diplomatic missions of the highest order in foreign 
lands, he served his country well. It is, therefore, with especial and 
peculiar pride that on this anniversary morning we recall his honored 
name and memory. 

There were many men of note and substance in that council. I 
make allusion here to one other only, their sole survivor; he is among 
the most honored of our guests. I may not pronounce his name but 
you know it well, and you rejoice with me that he bears his years 
serenely, with every mental faculty intact, and you know that the best 
interests of his native town have always been, as they are today, close 
to his ever youthful heart. 

The limit of the time and the nature of the duty assigned to me 
do not permit of further speech in this direction. I could not forbear, 
however, some reference to their quality who, fifty years ago, met and 
deliberated here. 

It is my privilege to welcome you, mine to express the greeting 
which old Newburyport extends to her returning children, and to her 
other guests, who from every quarter have come up to keep the feast. 
I believe there is no sentiment or instinct save that of kindred 
blood more deeply rooted in the human breast than that which binds 
man to his place of birth. By choice or stress of circumstances he 
may go far afield, yet time, nor distance, nor misfortune, nor even 
great success shall efface the memory of his early home or wean him 
from affectionate, loyal attachment to his native soil. 

With this conviction strong within me, and doubting not a quick 
response in every heart, I welcome, I salute you, for the native born. 
And I would add a further word of greeting, not less true and 
warm, in behalf of those other of our people who, born elsewhere, 
have cast in their lot with ours, quickening our blood, infusing health 
and vigor into every department of our social and business life. 

They of whom I speak have come to us with dearest memories oi 
other homes, remote or near in our own land or in far countries 
beyond the seas. Those memories they will cherish always, but today 



36 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

they and the native born are one, — one in high pride in our city's old 
renown; one in strong aspiration for its present and its future honor; 
and one in the heartfelt welcome which we now extend to you, our 
kindred, our neighbors, and our friends. 

The Choral Union, Mr. Emil Mollenhauer, director, sang the 
" Soldiers' Chorus" from " Faust," Gounod, and then Rev. Dr. H. C. 
Hovey, of the Old South church, read the following scriptural 
selection : 

A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Except the Lord keep the 
city, the watchman waketh but in vain. The Lord came down to see the 
city, and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, 
Behold the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they 
begin to do ; and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have 
imagined to do. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the 
face of all the earth. 

And the Lord said unto Abraham, if I find fifty righteous within the 
city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. For by faith Abraham 
looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 
For he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. And the word of the Lord 
came unto Jonah, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach 
unto it the preaching that I bid thee. The men of Nineveh shall rise in 
judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented 
at the preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is here. 

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that love thee. 
Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together, whither the tribes go 
up, the tribes of the Lord, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. The 
lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage. 
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about 
His people from henceforth even forever. Behold, He that keepeth Israel 
shall neither slumber nor sleep. There is a rive^, the streams whereof shall 
make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most 
High. God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be moved ; God shall help 
her, and that right early. 

Look upon the city of our solemnities. There the glorious Lord will 
be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams. My people shall dwell in a 
peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. 
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, 
and everlasting joy upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy and gladness, 
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 

Behold I come quickly ; hold fast that which thou hast, that no man 
take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of 
my God ; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of 
the city of my God. And the city lieth four square ; and the twelve gates 
are twelve pearls; and the streets of the city pure gold as it were transparent 
glass. And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it ; 
and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBUYPRORT 37 

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the 
last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they have right to 
the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Amen. 

The Choral Union sang "America," the audience joining, and 
then His Honor Mayor Brown said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — At this point I have the pleasure to 
announce the reading of a poem which has been composed for the 
occasion by Mr. Lothrop Withington, now resident in London. The 
absence of the gifted author is deeply to be regretted, but I am happy 
to say that the appointed reader is the writer's father, our honored 
townsman, Mr. Nathan Noyes Withington, whom I now have the 
honor of presenting to the audience. 

Mr. Withington read the following poem : 

POEM BY LOTHROP WITHINGTON 

Know ye not the pleasant valley 
Where the river Parker windeth 
Through the mossy rocks and marshes 

To the ocean's angry edge ? 
As upon the hill you sally, 
L/Ong your eye delights to dally 
On the stretch of farm and woodland, 
Desert sands and teeming good land, 
Rainbow maples, oaks, and willows, 
Greenest pines and bluest billows, 
Purest gold of shore embossing. 
Flashing silver tidal-tossing 
Dreamy hints of far off mountains. 
Winding threads from nature's fountains, 
Orchards, cornfields, pastures fallow. 
Which the setting sunbeams hallow 
With a glow the Norseman knows not, 
'Neath a sky which Capri shows not ; 
All the beauties earth can muster. 
All the thoughts the mind can cluster 
'Round an Eden un-evicted, 
Here suggested, here depicted ! 
O'er this dreamland of the lover 
Dong the soul will seek to hover, 
Dike the purple-breasted plover 
Ere awhile he darts to cover 

In the salty sedge. 



38 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

In the days of England's splendor, 
Ere her spirit, young and buoyant, 
Had succumb'd to poison'd virus 

Of the money-grubbing crew ; 
When her tone was true and tender, 
Not of seller nor of lender ; 
When her soldiers fought for freedom. 
And the gallant hearts to lead 'em 
Fired were by hope eternal, 
Not b}^ lust of pelf infernal ; 
When her prophets, fiercely earnest, 
Flash'd the light which still thou burnest 
As, full sick with cant and cunniug, 
Thou'd'st regale in right's rare sunning; 
When her poets, madly mirthful, 
Fill'd our sad and dull old earth full 
Of the music of the heavens 
And tongue-tingling truth which leavens 
Ev'ry human clod to waken, 
That all shackles may be shaken ; 
In those days of grand emotion. 
O'er the wilful Western Ocean 
Came a daring band of brothers. 
Fathers, daughters, sisters, mothers. 
Sons, with kinsman, friend, or neighbor, 
Now to build by homely labor. 
Not by rapine's flashing saber. 
Freedom — here a new-born babe — her 

Citadel anew ! 

Here upon the slope they landed, 
Bold of heart and strong of sinew 
Choicest cullings from the vineyard 

Of rare England's growth. 
Though they're now but mystic grand dead. 
Yet their likeness hath been handed 
Down the ages from their haunches 
In their ever-spreading branches, 
Bred in many storms and stresses. 
With the stolen, snatch'd caresses. 
From true lives who, in that brave age, 
Fac'd the forest and the savage, 
Ev'ry peril, pang, and hardship, 
With the faith divine of wardship. 
'Mid that band were some who foremost, 
Hieing homewards, brunt they bore most 
When their country's call resounded, — 
When, with phalanx of the Roundhead, 
Marston's moor and Naseby's battle 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 39 

Sunk the pride of kingly cattle, — 
Sat in Cromwell's proud alliance, 
Sending forth o'er earth defiance. 
And a thrill of warning terror 
Unto ignorance and error 
And oppression's brutal fetters; 
Making ev'ry age their debtors ! 
Vainly would we seek their betters; 
While their actions only let us 
Humbly own our sloth ! 

Not for long the nestling village 
By the modest Parker's current 
Could contain the ardent exiles 

And their blossoming seed ; 
Roaming, not for wanton pillage 
But in honest toil and tillage. 
Soon they sought the stately river 
Which is rolling down forever 
From the snowy granite fastness 
To the awful tidal vastness. 
There, beside the daily battle 
Of the waters, and the rattle 
Of the sandbars, never ceasing, 
Oft to hoarse halloo increasing, 
Builded they their beauteous borough, 
Set with many a sigh of sorrow. 
Many a pulse of joy ecstatic, 
Many an effort, fierce, fanatic. 
Many a hope betray'd and wither'd, 
Many a garland grandly gathered ; 
Seeking footsteps of the sages, 
Making paean for the ages, 
Shaming Grecian, shaming Roman, 
By a prophet voice to show man, 
Be it friend or be it foeman. 
There shall come the time when no man 

But from chains is freed ! 

Borough of beloved birthright. 
With thy fairest front uplifting. 
And thine earnest eyes, still shaded, 

Peering forth for deathless truth, 
Setting all the wrong old earth right. 
Thou hast to thy day of mirth right. 
Bitter oft as thy bereavement, 
Proud hath been thy great achievement ! 
As unmatched thy prows in prowess, 
Foremost in the race thy vow is. 



40 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Sea and shore thy triumphs witness ; 
Calm and storm display thy fitness. 
When apostate England's standard 
Symboliz'd the spoiler's vanguard, 
In thy mind remembrance quenching, 
From thy heart allegiance wrenching, 
First thy tones for freedom sounded, 
First thy sons the foe confounded ! 
And again, when the betrayer, 
Mouthing Freedom, sought to slay her, 
'Twas thy voice unmask'd the juggle, 
'Twas thy hand, o'er all the struggle, 
Scorning, 'mid the blood and slaughter. 
Vain revenge, vile passion's daughter, 
And the vainer precepts taught her, 
Steer'd fair Freedom's bark, and brought her 
To triumphant sooth ! 

Children of the sea-swept borough ! 
Children of the ancient exiles ! 
Children's children's children's children 

From the fierce-mouth'd Merrimac ! 
Deep forever be your furrow ! 
And your motto still be " Thorough ! " 
And your faith in man's redemption 
From all wrongs, without exemption, 
Be your rock of race religion ; 
Standing bold that hopeful bridge on. 
Give to ev'ry fellow mortal. 
Halting at the mind's high portal, 
Hope and courage, cheer and comfort. 
Not like spik'd guns of a dumb fort. 
While ye roam the wide earth's circuit. 
Where the deed is, dare not shirk it ! 
From our breasts all dwarfings banish 
Bred of creeds confin'd and clannish ! 
With one flash of recognition. 
Let each pass upon his mission ! 
Though a secret bond unite us. 
Let it but for man incite us ! 
Let our borough still be nameless. 
That its record may be blameless ! 
Ape not bloated lives so shameless 
Which of true renown may claim less 

In the ages glancing back ! 




HON. ALBERT E. PILLSBURY, 

ORATOR OF THE OCCASION. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 4 1 

Herbert E. Card, of the orchestra, played a bell solo, after which 
Mayor Brown introduced the orator of the day, Hon. Albert E. 
Pillsbury, of Boston, in the following words : 

Ladies and Gentlemeft : — I am about to present the orator of 
the day. As I do so I must needs express the satisfaction that is felt 
by the committee and throughout our community that the gentleman 
who is to deliver the address is one of ourselves — of good, old New- 
bury stock, connected by his ancestry and his living kindred very 
closely with our city and our noble mother town. We would extend 
to him a hearty personal welcome. 

I have the honor to present the Honorable Albert E. Pillsbury, 
of Boston. 

ADDRESS OF HON. AIvBERT E. PILLSBURY 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

The event which we celebrate today, the new birth 
of the town into a city, is more than a change in the form 
of government. Cities were the earliest seats of what 
we call civilization. "Civis" — the citizen — was a title 
of honor. The walled city was the stronghold and 
defence of learning and the arts. The ancient world 
survives in the history of its cities. To us it is little 
more than Ilium, Babylon, Carthage, Athens, Rome. 
Cities were and are the centers of wealth and power. 
They are the distinguished members of the state. So 
the admission of a town into the sisterhood of cities has 
an interest and significance beyond that which attends 
the mere increase of numbers. It is the opening of a new 
day. The community takes a higher rank, and with it 
every inhabitant acquires a new distinction. The local 
pride and public spirit of a home-loving people naturally 
unite to set apart such an event for public commem- 
oration. 

Newburyport has another and a peculiar reason for 
observing it. This anniversary is more than the mere 
recurrence of a date. Fifty years ago a new town had 



42 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

begun to arise here, on the foundations of the old; a 
town of different interests, different customs, largely of 
different people. The city charter marked the full open- 
ing of the new industrial age, of which half a century is 
now completed. 

The celebration of these civic anniversaries may 
mean much or little, according to the spirit which inspires 
it. They are natural halting-places in the procession of 
events, where we stop and look backward a moment over 
our course. But we move forward, not backward. Such 
a day is not for idle boasting, as one who putteth off his 
harness. It is a day to look forward, and to gird up the 
strength for new tasks; fortunate they who can look for- 
ward with tranquil eyes. If Newburyport were a decay- 
ing city, her character gone, her enterprise extinct, her 
great history but a perishing memory; if we could not 
look to the past without regret nor to the future without 
apprehension; this would be an idle and unmeaning 
holiday, soon over and soon forgotten. But if, on the 
other hand, we find in the record of fifty years, and in 
forecast of the years to come, that which will sustain 
hope, strengthen confidence, and stimulate courage; if 
our holiday banners are the ensigns of an advancing 
march, and our bells and cannon speak with the voice of 
resolve no less than exultation; nay, if taking counsel 
even of our mistakes, we can gather from the experience 
of the past new wisdom for the benefit of the future, then 
indeed will this be no empty celebration, but a day to be 
marked and remembered in the city's calendar. 

I ask leave to speak here as one of this family. 
When Edward Rawson, town clerk and local magistrate 
of Newbury, removed to Boston in 1651 to take the place 
of Colonial Secretary, he sold his homestead on the 
"country road," now High street, to my first ancestor in 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 43 

this country, whose lineal descendants have possessed it 
down to this day. I regret that his only claim to peculiar 
distinction seems to have been in getting himself fined, in 
the sum of " one noble," for his part in that thirty-years 
war which shook the foundations of old Newbury church, 
the Parker-Woodman controversy. But he stood for the 
rule of the majority, and time has vindicated him. Three 
generations of my ancestors, and many more of my 
kindred, have mingled their bones with your soil. All of 
my name and family in America look to this spot as the 
cradle of their race in the new world. It is no unlineal 
hand that I extend to you in embracing the opportunity 
to acknowledge, if I cannot repay, the natural debt which 
we all owe to the home of our fathers. 

It was an ancient superstition that great events are 
attended by storms and portents. Those who observe 
such things may like to recall that in the midst of the 
movements at the state capital which brought this city 
into existence, in the spring of 185 1, a great tempest 
swept over this region, the like of which, according to 
local tradition, was never known here before. Probably 
most of us will agree that no special significance or effect 
upon the fortunes of Newburyport is to be ascribed to 
this convulsion of nature. There is another contempora- 
neous fact of more interest which did affect them. It was 
only a narrow chance, hardly more than an accident as it 
now appears, that gave birth to this city. It will not be 
without interest to relate how the event came about 
which furnishes the occasion for this festival. 

On the fourteenth day of January, 1851, Abner Ken- 
iston and one hundred and eighty-four others, "inhabitants 
of that part of Newbury called Belleville parish," pre- 
sented to the General Court their petition, praying that 
"the territory aforesaid, bounded southeasterly by New- 



44 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

buryport, from the Merrimac river to Anvil Rock in 
common pasture, being the southwesterly corner of 
Newburyport, and thence by a straight line to the north- 
easterly corner of Newbury in Birchen meadow, may be 
set off from Newbury and incorporated into a town by 
the name of Belleville." 

This was the latest in a long series of applications to 
the legislature by the people of Newburyport or adjacent 
parts of Newbury, indicating discontent with their situa- 
tion under the act of 1764, by which Newburyport was 
made a town of an area variously stated at from six 
hundred and thirty to six hundred and forty-seven acres, 
the smallest ever known to the province or common- 
wealth. The prosperous village of Newburyport had 
soon overflowed these narrow borders. This overflow, 
bound to Newburyport in interest but to Newbury in law, 
was a disturbing element in the old agricultural town. 
There was jealousy and bickering in the management of 
its aflTairs, between the men who plowed the land and the 
men who plowed the sea. Petitions for annexation of 
parts of Newbury to Newburyport were presented to the 
legislatures of 1794, 1821, 1827, 1832, 1834, 1835, 1843, 
and 1847, without success. In 1828 some inhabitants of 
Belleville, or the "fifth parish," asked for incorporation 
as a separate town, to which Newbury assented; but 
others asked for annexation to Newburyport, and both 
movements were defeated. In 1846 the legislature was 
asked to reunite Newbury and Newburyport, but New- 
bury would not have you. 

Upon the petition for the incorporation of the town 
of Belleville, in 1851, notice was ordered to Newbury, 
and on February 8th the town voted not to oppose it. 
In this petition, and this action of the town of Newbury 
upon it, there was a large possibility that Newbur3^port 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 45 

might never come into existence as a city. The only 
surviving member of the legislative committee on towns 
of that year* is authority for the statement that upon first 
consideration of this petition it appeared that the differ- 
ences of three-quarters of a century between Newbury- 
port and Newbury were likely to be merged in the new 
town of Belleville. In this posture of affairs, a seemingly 
trifling intervention changed, in hardly more than a day, 
the whole course of events and of your future history. 

The incorporation of cities in Massachusetts had 
been undertaken reluctantly and with many doubts, which 
even a constitutional amendment hardly quieted, and not 
until the town-meeting of Boston, with forty thousand 
inhabitants, had become an unmanageable body. But 
Salem and Lowell had followed in 1836, Cambridge in 
1846, New Bedford in 1847, Worcester in 1848, Lynn in 
1850, and by 185 1 the movement was well underway. 
To Caleb Cushing, then representing Newbury in the 
legislature, it was suggested by the legislative committee 
that it would be more in line with current events to 
enlarge Newburyport and give it a city charter than to 
create another small town. It would seem that the com- 
mittee suspended action upon the Keniston petition, that 
Mr. Cushing might seize the opportunity to make New- 
buryport a city. 

Apparently he lost no time in acting upon this hint. 
On February 13th he presented a memorial of Jacob 
Merrill and twenty-two others, who had signed the 
Keniston petition, withdrawing from it their names and 
support; a remonstrance of Francis Lord and seventy- 
three other residents against it; and a similar remonstrance 
from Sarah Little and eleven other women residents, 
declaring that "although unused by our former habits 

* Hon. James Dinsinoor, of Lowell. 



46 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

and the customs of the country to active interest in 
political or municipal affairs, yet we believe it to be our 
right, and feel it to be our duty, to express our opinions 
and wishes upon this question." To this early but active 
assertion of woman's rights this cit}^ may owe its exist- 
ence. Two days later these remonstrances were followed 
by a petition of Moses Pettingell and one hundred and 
one others, residents of the Ridge and Joppa, and two 
days later still by a similar petition of William Goodwin 
and forty-nine others, residents of the westerly part of 
Newbury, for annexation of their territory to Newbury- 
port. February 19th, immediately following these peti- 
tions and remonstrances, and apparently in pursuance of 
an understanding with the committee, the petitioners for 
the town of Belleville were given leave to withdraw. 
Upon the petitions for annexation, notice was ordered to 
Newbury and Newburyport, which voted their assent. 
The annexation bill was reported April 3d, and became a 
law April 17th. One week later Newburyport appointed, 
in town-meeting, a committee of ten, headed by Mr. 
Gushing, to apply for a city charter. Their petition was 
presented the following day, and a charter was reported 
May I St, which became a law May 24th by the approval 
of Governor George S. Boutwell, who remains among us, 
full of years and honors, to witness the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the act. June 3d the charter was accepted by the 
inhabitants, June i6th city officers were elected, and June 
24th, fifty years ago this day, the new government was 
organized, and Newburyport took her place among the 
cities of the commonwealth. 

The new city paid her newly-annexed inhabitants 
the appropriate compliment of selecting from their num- 
ber, as the first mayor, that remarkable man whose hand 
had been so active in procuring the charter. The 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 47 

versatile genius of Caleb Gushing was never more strik- 
ingly illustrated than at this period when, within the 
space of a year and a half, he is found filling in succession 
the offices of representative in the legislature, mayor of 
Newburyport, justice of the supreme judicial court, and 
attorney general of the United States. Of his colleagues 
in the original city government of 185 1, your esteemed 
fellow-citizen, Philip K. Hills, alone survives to join in 
this commemoration. 



The city of Newburyport stands out against an 
historic background, the like of which, in richness of 
color and variety of interest, belongs to few cities even 
of this ancient and historic commonwealth. To the eye 
of the native or descendant it reflects all the hues of this 
radiant nimbus. The very sound of the name stirs the 
historic imagination. Without an}'' artificial advantage, 
never a capital nor even a county-seat, the capital itself 
hardly excels this city in wealth of historic memories. 

Fortunately it is not left to me to relate her history. 
It is written in the pages of Gushing, his first published 
work; in Coffin's history of the Newburys, that New 
England classic, to which all paths of antiquarian research 
finally lead; in the later work of Euphemia Vale Smith; 
in the "Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian," a picture, 
perfect as a cameo, of the actual daily life of the people 
of old Newburyport; and in that sumptuous volume in 
which a worthy son and citizen here present* has painted 
with the hand of affection, for the delight of posterity, the 
men and scenes hallowed by local tradition, now disap- 
peared or disappearing. The muse of Whittier has cast 
her spell upon it. It has been sung in the verse of native 

* Ex-Mayor John James Currier. 



48 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

poets, and recited by orators on many occasions — and 
yet the whole story of Newburyport has never been told. 
We cannot turn from the picture without a passing 
glance, nor can we rightly view the city of today without 
a brief retrospect, however imperfect, of the events which 
gave it birth. 

The history of Newbur3/port falls naturally into four 
principal divisions: the colonial period, of settlement and 
natural growth, of Puritan theology, witchcraft, earth- 
quakes, and the first promptings of freedom, leading up 
to the incorporation of the town in 1764; the days of the 
old town in its prosperity, from the close of the Revolution 
to the great fire and the war of 181 2; the years of doubt 
and discouragement that followed, from which the town 
emerged with the beginning of manufactures, culminating 
in the birth of the city; and the half-century now com- 
pleted. We cannot separate the early history of New- 
buryport from that of old Newbury, nor make a distinct 
partition of its honors or memories between them. *lf a 
Solomon came to that judgment, each would have it 
remain one and indivisible. But our Newbury and West 
Newburv neighbors will indulo^e us in the recollection 
that much, perhaps most, that is remarkable in the history 
of the old town was enacted on this spot, and so is justly 
part of the heritage and possessions of Newburyport, 
and as such we must claim the right to speak of it; a 
claim the more readily to be conceded as we cannot take 
their history from them though taking it to ourselves. 

The situation of the town favored both inland trade 
and foreign commerce, — "terra marique" is appropriately 
written on the city's scroll — and here the commerce of 
Massachusetts practically began; a commerce which not 
only filled the purse but broadened the horizon. It 
quickened the narrow and somber life of that Puritan 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 49 



people with the elements of romance that lie in the 
wonders and mysteries of the sea. They saw visions of 
far-off lands, and dreamed of voyages and the prizes of 
adventure. It was with the peace of 1783 that the golden 
age of old Newburyport began. For a generation follow- 
ing, its story is unique in the history of New England. 
Toward the end of the eighteenth century Europe was in 
arms. The neutrality of the United States, and its natural 
advantages for commerce, threw into American hands a 
large share of the carrying trade of the world. The skill 
of Newburyport shipwrights, and the energy and courage 
of Newburyport merchants and mariners, opened to this 
modest provincial town a career of marvelous prosperity. 
It was a time of great hazards, but of great profits. Out 
of commercial enterprise a town arose here which almost 
rivalled the brilliancy of a foreign capital. Then New- 
buryport, a grand dame arrayed in silks and jewels, 
holding her court in a splendor almost regal, drew to her 
feet much of the brightest and best of the character, 
intellect, and culture of the commonwealth. Here the 
Tracys, the Daltons, the Jacksons, the Lowells, the Bart- 
letts, the Greenleafs, theWigglesworths, theWheelwrights, 
the Hoopers, the Littles, the Lunts, the Hales, the 
Browns, and other families of no less worth, formed a 
constellation whose luster makes a shining page in the 
history of the town. Stately mansions, fitted and adorned 
with European luxury, surrounded with gardens and 
terraces, rose along the "ridge", the villas of opulent mer- 
chants stood in the midst of baronial estates in the 
environs, gorgeous equipages filled the streets, the gentry 
clothed themselves and their families in broadcloths, 
velvets, and laces, and dined off plate at banquets mel- 
lowed with the choicest vintages of the world, and 
wealth, intellect, and culture united to make Newbury- 



50 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

port a social and commercial center hardly inferior in 
attractions to the metropolis itself. In wealth and popu- 
lation it was second only to Boston and Salem; in com- 
mercial and social importance it was hardly second to 
either. 

But all this splendor blossomed from a single root, 
and it withered almost as soon as it had grown. 
With the approach of the war of 1812 the clouds gathered 
over Newburyport. In the midst of the strangulation of 
commerce by embargoes and non-intercourse acts came 
the devastating fire of May 31, 181 1. Fortune had veiled 
her face. From these multiplied calamities the old New- 
buryport never arose. When prosperity returned, it 
was a new day and a new town. Before the tire, New- 
buryport had seven thousand six hundred and thirty-four 
souls and more than seven millions of wealth. It took 
thirty years to regain her former numbers, and the 
property valuation of 181 1 was never again reached until 
1856, nor permanently restored until 1865. 

The decline of old Newburyport was the inevitable 
result of causes of wider operation than the war or the 
fire. When commerce again spread her wings, after the 
war of 1 81 2, they bore her away from Newburyport to 
the greater ports and harbors more favored by nature. 
The day of small craft was past. The bar at the river's 
mouth was an obstacle to vessels of larger draft and ton- 
nage which no degree of local enterprise could sur- 
mount. Then came the Middlesex canal, diverting the 
inland trade. For a generation Newburyport was almost 
at a standstill. Some of her capitalists were ruined, 
others sought new fields of enterprise, and those who 
remained could not in a moment repair the disasters 
which had shattered their fortunes. From the fire to a 
time near the middle of the century there was doubt, 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 5 1 

discouragement, stagnation. But the universal law of 
compensation was at work. As one thing goes, another 
comes. The seed of the future prosperity of Newbury- 
port was planted in 1834, the year that saw the erection 
of the first cotton factory. The smoke of the chimneys 
of the Essex mill was the signal that manufactures had 
come in, to take the place of commerce. This mill was 
soon followed by others, and by shoe manufacture, an 
ancient industry of the town, on an extended scale. The 
opening of the Eastern railroad, in 1840, followed by the 
connection of the city with the Boston & Maine railroad, 
in 1850, stimulated these and other enterprises, and by 
185 1 Newburyport was fairly entered upon a new indus- 
trial career, destined to excel and to outlast the excep- 
tional but unstable fortunes of the old town. And with 
this revival of industry the city began. 

A survey of the ensuing fifty years, of which this 
day marks the completion, would show that Newburyport 
has kept fully abreast of the age in all the lines of civic 
development. Public spirit and private munificence have 
combined to endow the city with every agency and 
appliance for the promotion of the public welfare. The 
introduction of gas lighting in 1852, since supplemented 
by electricity; the founding of the public library in 1854, 
a memorable event in the history of any city; the con- 
struction of the City railroad, in 187 1, connecting the 
water-front with the Boston & Maine railroad; the open- 
ing, in 1873, of the first horse-railway, between New- 
buryport and Amesbury, now developed into a network 
of electric lines extending in all directions; the gilt to 
the city, in the same year, of the Atkinson common as a 
public pleasure ground; the liberal bequest, in 1880, for 
the erection of a city almshouse, completed and occupied 



52 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

in 1889; the introduction of a public water supply, in 
1881; the incorporation of the Wheelwright Scientific 
School, in 1882; the endowment, in 1883, of that most 
grateful of all public charities, a free hospital, to which 
public-spirited citizens have since made substantial con- 
tributions, crowned by the recent gift of land and means 
for the erection of a new hospital building; the unique 
benefaction, in 1885, for the watering of the public 
streets; the public sewerage system, begun in 1889, now 
so far extended as to embrace the greater part of the city; 
these and other public improvements, which time forbids 
me to enumerate, have marked the progress of the city. 

The finer aesthetic sense, which refuses to be satisfied 
with merely material things, has not been inactive during 
this period. The statue of Washington has risen in the 
park; the bronze figure of Garrison, the most illustrious 
son of Newburyport of the last century, whose appeal for 
human rights she refused in a moment of madness to 
hear, stands a perpetual witness to the final triumph of 
truth; and public fountains, pleasure grounds, and other 
objects of art and beauty, are ministering to the eye and 
the taste and stimulating public spirit to emulate the 
generosity of the benefactors of the city, whose names 
will be held in grateful remembrance. 

The religious activity for which this community was 
remarkable from the earliest times, if abated in zeal is 
unimpaired in its wholesome influence upon the public 
morals and the social welfare of the city. Charitable, 
scientific, historical, and literary enterprises have contin- 
ued in undiminished vigor, maintaining the high character 
of the city for intelligence, public spirit, philanthropy, 
and all the social virtues. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 53 

This is a material age, and Newburyport is an indus- 
trial city. A distinguished citizen of Massachusetts has 
recently remarked that if you wish to stir this generation 
of Americans to enthusiasm, you must do it with a column 
of figures. While there is truth in this satire, I shall not 
assume that the people of Newburyport can be moved 
only by an account of material growth or commercial 
profits. But figures may be pregnant with the most sig- 
nificant facts, and these symbols must be employed to 
measure the material progress of a community like this. 
The industrial history of Newburyport in these fifty 
years discloses some interesting and remarkable facts, of 
which the most notable is the great increase of wealth and 
industries in contrast with the slow growth of popu- 
lation. 

In 1850 the town, by the Federal census, had 9572 
inhabitants. It is said in written statements presented to 
the legislature with the annexation petition, of 185 1, 
agreeing in this though differing in other particulars, 
that the population of the annexed territory was 2842. 
Assuming this to be correct, and the weight of evidence 
seems to support it though the number has been differ- 
ently stated, the original population of the city in 1851 
was 12,414. In 1900 it was 14,478. The gain in half a 
century is 2064, being 16.62 per cent., or one-sixth, an 
average of but one-third of one per cent, yearly. Each 
decade except that following i860, and each period of 
five years since 1870 except the last, shows a slight gain. 
The Federal census of 1900 charges Newburyport with a 
loss of 74 inhabitants since 1895, which has doubtless 
been more than made good by this time — certainly it 
would be if the census were taken today. The increase 
in the number of ratable polls since 185 i is 1831, a gain 
of 72 per cent, as against a gain of less than 17 per cent. 



54 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

in total population; 87 per cent, of the whole gain in 
numbers being of this class. This is characteristic of a 
manufacturing population, but it indicates an unusual 
proportion of those who are not "set in families." 

The exhibit of the wealth and industries of the city 
is in marked contrast with this slight increase of numbers. 
From 185 I to 1900 real property has increased in value 
from $2,596,400 to $7,286,000, a gain of 180 per cent.; 
in other words, it has nearly trebled. Personal property, 
including corporate stocks not appearing in the local val- 
uation, has risen from $2,880,200 in 185 1 to $3,632,033 
in 1900, a gain of $751,833, or 26 per cent. The whole 
wealth of the city has risen from $5,476,600 in 1851 to 
$10,918,033 in 1900, or more than 99 per cent. Thus 
property has substantially doubled while population has 
increased but one-sixth; in other words, wealth has in- 
creased about twelve times as fast as population. 

Industrial statistics were not compiled in 1850. The 
growth of the local industries within the city period can 
be approximately shown by comparing those of 1845 and 
1855 with those of 1900. In 1845 the six leading indus- 
tries were, in this order, cotton goods, boots and shoes, 
machinery and metal goods, shipbuilding, snufF and to- 
bacco, clocks, watches and jewelry. The amount of cap- 
ital invested in all industries, as nearly as known, was 
$757,300, the average number of persons employed 1598, 
the whole annual value of products $841,258. In 1855 
shipbuilding temporarily superseded boots and shoes as 
second in importance, foods supplanted jewelry, and the 
order was, cotton goods, shipbuilding, boots and shoes, 
machinery and metals, snuff and tobacco, food products. 
The whole capital invested was $1,467,300, persons em- 
ployed 2904, value of products $2,422,632. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 55 

In 1900 the order of importance was, boots and shoes, 
cotton goods, building, clothing, food products and metals, 
Shipbuilding and tobacco manufactures had disappeared 
from the six leading industries. Clothing and building 
had come in, and boots and shoes had forged ahead of 
cotton goods and taken the first place. The whole capi- 
tal invested was $3,863,199, persons employed 3076, value 
of products $5,685,768. 

In the fifty-five years from 1845 to 1900 the capital 
invested in manufacturing industries had increased over 
410 per cent., or nearly five-fold; the number of persons 
emplo3'ed had increased about 93 per cent., or nearly 
double; the value of products had increased over 575 per 
cent, or more than six-fold. In the forty-five years from 
1855 to 1900 the increase of capital invested was over 163 
per cent., or nearly treble; the increase in persons em- 
ployed was about 6 per cent.; the increase in the value 
of products was over 134 per cent., or more than double. 

It is evident that the increase in manufacturingr in- 
dustries was well under way between 1845 and 1855. 
They were planted and growing before the city arose. 
The value of products of the industries has increased in 
a larger proportion than the capital invested, and in more 
than six times the proportion of persons employed; a 
result due, without doubt, to improved machinery and 
facilities, to the change in the character of the industries, 
and to skilful management. The value of manufactures 
has more than doubled while population has increased but 
one-sixth; in other words, the ratio of increase in the 
products of manufacture is more than twelve times as 
great as in population. 

One plain conclusion from these facts may well be 
the subject of congratulation here. The material inter- 
ests of the city have prospered because there is a healthy 



56 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

diversity of industries and employments. In the old 
times everything was centered in commerce, and when 
commerce shook her elusive wingrs and flew away from 
old Newburyport, she took prosperit}-^ with her. In the 
city of today prosperity is safely anchored in the found- 
ations of a score of mills and factories. 



We are celebrating the adoption of city government, 
and some consideration of that subject cannot be out of 
place. As much that must be said of it is not to its credit, 
I begin by saying, as fortunately may be said with truth, 
that city government in Newburyport has developed no 
occasion for unusual complaint. This city is at least as 
fortunate as its neighbors. If there is dissatisfaction here 
with city government, or if it is declining in character, 
this result may fairly be ascribed to inherent defects of 
the system. Accordingly, in glancing at this subject, 
which can be done here only in the broadest perspective, 
I speak only of city government in general. If it has 
succeeded here, there is no better reason for this celebra- 
tion. If it has not, we can make no better use of a 
moment than to consider the reasons. The subject is of 
general importance, as the movement of population now 
sets strongly towards the cities, in which two-thirds of 
the people of this Commonwealth are dwelling at this 
moment. 

Perhaps city government is not, on the whole, so 
black as it is painted. The complaints against it are ex- 
aggerated in the heat of party warfare, or by the criticism 
of theorists who forget that perfection cannot be reached 
in the actual running of governmental machinery. 
Making due allowance for all this, there are substantial 
grounds of dissatisfaction, which challenge the attention 
of all students of public affairs who realize how much 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 57 

more closely the interests of the average citizen are 
bound up with the local than with the general govern- 
ment, in a country where the municipality absorbs more 
than four-fifths of all the direct taxes, and municipal 
debts are ten times greater than all other public obliga- 
tions. And it must not be forgotten that the sight of 
open misgovernment is demoralizing. If tolerated, it will 
corrupt the springs of public virtue. Unless the people 
change the character of the government for the better 
the government will change the character of the people 
for the worse. 

The general discontent with the actual results of city 
rule is evident from the fact that it is one of the most 
irrepressible themes of popular discussion. The press 
teems with it, publicists theorize upon it in volumes of 
learned essays, statisticians embellish it with figures, 
legislatures labor with it and give birth to whole libraries 
of statutes more or less impotent or mischievous, and the 
failure of all these attempts at reform has led to the sug- 
gestion of a variety of other remedies, ranging in force 
and character from disfranchisement to lynching. It 
must be conceded that if the genius of this people for 
self-government has failed anywhere, it is at this point. 
The general inefficiency of city government in this coun- 
try stands confessed. Our commonwealth is happily yet 
free from any great municipal scandal or any flagrant 
example of misrule, but we cannot be surprised that 
towns qualified for city government hesitate to adopt it, 
and that at least one of our cities is today seriously con- 
sidering the question of surrendering its charter. 

The process of degeneration is familiar. Municipal 
expenditure, necessarily large, usually extravagant, not 
infrequently reckless, offers an irresistible temptation to 
the large and growing class of those who wish to live 



58 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

without work at the public expense. Wheresoever the 
carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. A 
municipal "ring" is evolved, which controls the city gov- 
ernment, a "boss" arises who controls the ring, the peo- 
ple are dethroned, power passes from responsible officers 
to irresponsible and unscrupulous hands, and the way is 
open for a carnival of misrule. The public moneys are 
diverted from their proper uses to enrich a horde of 
political parasites; salaried offices are confiscated as the 
legitimate spoil of the workers; jobbery takes toll of all 
municipal expenditure; and even the public schools and 
the public charities are made to pa}^ tribute of corrup- 
tion. Public office acquires a bad name. Citizens who 
have the largest stake in honest government turn their 
backs in contempt upon the public service and abdicate 
all active participation in political affairs, and the descend- 
ants of the men who waged a seven years' war against 
threepence a pound on tea quietly submit to be looted of 
millions by political gangs organized for plunder, whose 
operations are a public scandal, and whose existence in 
the face of a well-directed public sentiment would be 
impossible. 

There is one short, if cynical, answer to all this. 
Popular government will never be better than the people 
who make it. If the people of the cities are no better 
than their government, if they have really become indif- 
ferent, reckless, and corrupt, if character is declining, if 
public spirit is becoming extinct, municipal and all other 
misrule is accounted for. The general popular indiffer- 
ence to misgovernment is a striking phenomenon, the 
causes of which lie deeper than our inquiry today can 
extend. But it is yet true, whatever the portents, that if 
the whole people of any city could be polled upon the 
direct issue of honest government, they would speak for 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 59 

it with no uncertain voice. The practical difficulty is 
that an active and resolute minority, having a personal 
interest to make the public treasury a subject of private 
plunder, contrive by superior zeal and organization to 
control or suppress the political influence of an indiffer- 
ent and heedless majority. A large proportion of the 
voting population of most cities has no substantial stake 
in honest administration. The taxpayers are usually a 
minority. Those who vote are not those who pay. 

The inefficiency of city government is due to a variety 
of causes. Some of them are inherent and unavoidable; 
a fact not alwa3's remembered. Conditions vary with 
natural situation, systems of local law, the character of 
industries and population, and other circumstances. No 
system would be the best everywhere. Our system has 
some features which are undesirable anywhere, and for 
the perpetuation of these, at least, there is no justification. 
Any efficient remedy must be so simple as to be easily 
applied, it must recognize unalterable facts and condi- 
tions, and it must restore to city government the control- 
ling power of sound public sentiment. 

The government of all cities is necessarily expensive. 
This appears in the financial history of Newburyport, as 
it must in all cities. Debt and taxation are growing here 
even more rapidly than wealth and industries. Density 
of population, by itself, generates new needs and calls for 
large expenditures, unnecessary and unknown in rural 
neighborhoods. The streets of a city must be lighted, 
paved, and cleaned. A city must have a public water 
supply and a system of sewerage, in the interest of public 
health. It must have police protection for the preserva- 
tion of the public peace. It must have an efficient fire 
department for the protection of property. All these and 
other like charges, the sum total of which forms a large 



6o FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

part of municipal expenditure, are made necessary by 
mere congestion of population. The form of government 
is not responsible for them. And now the steady advance 
of state socialism, in high places no less than in low, is 
constantly throwing new burdens upon the public which 
have been and should be borne by private enterprise. 
The best that can be done in dealing with the unavoidable 
burdens is to secure honesty and prevent extravagance. 
If the city buys no more than it needs, and if it gets an 
honest equivalent for the purchase price, there is no 
ground of complaint. And as wealth centers in cities, 
these charges, under honest administration, are easily 
borne, and the public benefits which they provide are 
usually worth much more than their cost. 

The most radical of all the difficulties with city gov- 
ernment is in the anomalous relation between cities and 
the state. The accepted legal theory here is that local self- 
government is not a constitutional right but a political 
privilege, to be granted or withheld by the legislature in 
such measure as it sees fit. A city is but a branch of the 
state government, and as such a mere agency and instru- 
ment of the legislative will. It has the form of self- 
government but not the substance. All its public powers 
are held at sufferance of the legislature, which may grant 
such as it pleases, modify or withdraw them as it pleases, 
or step in on any occasion and exercise by its own hand 
the powers which it has granted to the city. The guber- 
natorial veto, not always wisely or justly exercised, adds 
another complication to legislative control. It has 
hitherto been understood that the power of the state to 
compel a city to tax its inhabitants is limited, at most, to 
the common public needs. But judicial wisdom now 
declares that objects in the nature of luxuries, to be paid 
for by compulsory taxation, may be forced upon a city 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 6 1 

against its will by legislative decree; that a city may be 
compelled to adorn itself with parks, for example, or 
incidentally with improved architecture, at its own 
expense and according to the legislative taste. If such a 
power exists, it can have no limit except the legislative 
pleasure. Fancy a gallery of pictures or statuary selected 
by a committee of the General Court and the bill sent to 
the city by order of that body — yet to this we may 
come. 

The judicial view of the relations between the state 
and the city is contrary to all the facts of our history. In 
Massachusetts we know that the towns made the state, 
not the state the towns. Apparently it would have been 
easy, clearly it would have been more wholesome, to hold 
in the outset that the privileges of the towns under the 
ancient charters were not disturbed by adopting the con- 
stitution; leaving to them at least such local indepen- 
dence as they had previously enjoyed, and carrying over 
these powers and privileges of the inhabitants unimpaired 
upon the erection of a town into a city. But the other 
view was adopted in the earliest times and has always 
been maintained; with the result that, whereas under the 
crown the local communities enjoyed a liberal measure 
of freedom, under the republic the}' are but little more 
than mere vassals and dependencies of the state. 

Nor have we any constitutional restraints against 
special legislation for cities; though there is some com- 
pensation for this in escaping the necessity of resort to 
the absurd devices employed to evade such restraint in 
states where it exists. It rests with the legislature alone 
to determine when, upon what pretext, and to what 
extent it will interfere in the direct government of any 
city. It may take in charge the appointment and removal 
of city officers, — and while actual legislative interference 



62 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

in Massachusetts has not yet extended farther than 
assumption of the control of the police, it was but the 
other day that the legislature of a neighboring common- 
wealth turned out the officers of three great cities, filling 
their places with its own nominees, and the courts were 
obliged to sustain this action as within legislative power. 
The legislature may extend or curtail the tax levy, or the 
borrowing power; dictate what money the city may or 
shall spend and for what purposes; lay out streets; con- 
struct or order the construction at the city's expense of 
public buildings or other public works; or compel the 
city to contribute to the cost of enterprises in which it 
has no title and may have no real interest. The public 
property of the city is wholly under legislative control, 
and may be dealt with and disposed of as the legislature 
sees fit. While this is a reasonable rule for public prop- 
erty of a character requiring one uniform system of con- 
trol, the public highwa^^s for example, it is not reasonable 
that a city should be wholly subject to the legislative will 
as to property held for local purposes. Still more unjust 
and absurd is it that the city should be subject to compul- 
sory levies of taxation to provide objects of indulgence 
wholly beyond the proper public necessities, and that it 
should have no secure title to property paid for by taxa- 
tion of its inhabitants. Such a system is wrong in prin- 
ciple and pernicious in results. 

The direct consequence of unrestrained legislative 
control of cities is to bring chaos upon municipal admin- 
istration. How much money shall be raised by taxation, 
or borrowed, or spent, or for what, may be determined at 
home or it may be determined at the state capital, accord- 
ing to the exigencies of politics. If a city job is defeated 
in council or vetoed by the mayor, the promotors per- 
suade a compliant legislature to do it or order it done; 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 63 

and conversely, if a city undertakes a proper public 
enterprise to which an active minority is opposed, they 
invoke, often successfully, the interference of the legislat- 
ure to prevent it. Where power is scattered responsibil- 
ity disappears. Neither state-house nor city-hall can be 
held accountable for what goes wrong. The people, 
having no real power, cease to feel any responsibility. 
They become indifferent to their own political duties and 
even to the character of their candidates for municipal 
office; knowing that if good men are elected they may 
be controlled or thwarted by a superior power, and trust- 
ing that if bad men are elected the same power can be 
persuaded to stand in their way. 

In some of the later constitutions of western states 
cities are given a much larger power of self-government 
than they have elsewhere enjoyed; an interesting experi- 
ment, the result of which should shed light upon the path 
to municipal reform. In important constitutional changes 
Massachusetts moves with deliberation. It is no easy 
task to draw the line between powers which ought to be 
confided to the cities and towns and powers which must 
remain in the state. A large measure of central control 
is essential to a symmetrical system. This is no time or 
place to pursue the discussion of changes in municipal 
policy so radical as to disturb the constitutional founda- 
tions; but no radical and permanent reform can be 
expected until cities are endowed with more of the rights 
and powers of responsible self-government. 

The adoption of city government involves abandon- 
ment of the town-meeting, justly regarded, not only by 
us who have been brought up under it but by all intelli- 
gent students of public questions, as the best form of 
local rule ever applied to our affairs. It makes every 
voting citizen a member of the governing body, with a 



64 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

direct share of the power and of the responsibility. The 
majority, which always desires good government, is 
actually in control. For this, city government substitutes 
a representative system which is not in fact representative. 
It does not, as a rule, actually reflect the opinions or the 
desires of the people. Cut off from direct participation 
in the government, divested of the sense of responsibility 
which goes hand in hand with power, his part reduced to 
voting once a year, usually for the candidates of a packed 
caucus, the average citizen, except in some emergency, 
lapses into indifference and his weight ceases to be felt 
in the scale. Under the one system he is on the spot, 
looking after his own affairs; under the other, while in 
theory represented by the one-hundredth or five-hun- 
dredth part of an alderman or councilman, in truth he 
counts for no more than a cipher in the sum total of the 
results. In proportion as the will and conscience of the 
individual citizen are eliminated from it, the character of 
the government declines. It ceases to be government by 
or for the people. An essential factor of the problem is 
to bring back the people to the actual control of their 
affairs. 

The prevailing American form of city government, 
a mayor and a council of two branches, is an anachronism, 
and, as applied to the government of our cities, an absurd- 
ity. It is sometimes supposed to be copied from English 
or other European forms of municipal government. It is 
really framed upon a model much nearer at hand, though 
quite as ill-suited to the purpose. In the struggle of 
centuries for popular rights, our English ancestors worked 
out the fabric of king, lords, and commons; an executive 
head and a legislature of two branches, one representing 
aristocratic power, the other the rights of the people. 
This general form was brought over to this country in 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 65 

the colonial charters, and was naturally followed in the 
earliest state constitutions, and later in the Federal consti- 
tution. When cities began to arise, it had become so 
fixed in the popular conception of government that it was 
carried into city charters, and there, with some slight 
variations, it has always remained. A form of govern- 
ment essential to preserve the balance of powers and 
interests between the great estates of the realm, in dealing 
with the policies of a nation, may be very ill-adapted to 
the control of a city under institutions founded on equal 
rights and universal suffrage. City government, while 
not wholly a business affair, as is sometimes said, consists 
so largely in the collection and disbursement of money 
that the machinery should primarily be adapted to the 
honest and efficient conduct of such business. Among 
the people of a city there is no natural division of classes 
or interests calling for distinct representation; and if 
there were, such representation is not secured under the 
present forms. The only actual division is between those 
who want the government prudently conducted and the 
public funds honestly applied to their proper uses, and 
those who do not. The original reason for a legislative 
body of two chambers, — that each may represent a differ- 
ent class or interest, — does not exist. The remaining 
reason, — to secure further deliberation, and that each 
may be a check upon the excesses of the other, — is not 
satisfied by the existing system. It does not in fact 
answer this purpose. In fact the two branches divide 
and weaken responsibility, multiply opportunities for log- 
rolling, and impair the directness and force which are 
more essential in the control of city affairs than the larger 
deliberation which great public questions demand. 

Two rules or principles seem essential to efficient 
municipal organization. First, the whole executive power 



66 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

and responsibility should be vested in a single head; on 
the principle of Napoleon's aphorism that " nothing is so 
bad as a bad general, except two good generals." Second, 
all legislative power, — the power to determine all ques- 
tions of the general policy of the city, — should be vested 
in a single council, so large as to be a real representative 
body. In short, the system must contain the means of 
developing the true public sentiment, by responsible pub- 
lic discussion, and the means of efficient execution of the 
policy and the measures ordained by the deliberative 
branch. 

The powers of the council, being wholly of a legis- 
lative character, confined to settling the broader questions 
of policy which arise in city affairs, its duty is substan- 
tially discharged in the enacting of standing ordinances, 
— and the fewer they are and the less they are meddled 
with the better, — and in determining, once in each year, 
the amount and general destination of all appropriations 
and of the tax levy or loans required to meet them. 
These questions once disposed of, the whole power and 
duty of carrying the policy of the council into effect is 
left to the executive. For all these purposes, a few 
meetings early in the year would ordinarily be enough. 
The members of the council being thus relieved of the 
necessity of constant attendance and attention throughout 
the year, public-spirited citizens may be induced to accept 
membership in such numbers as to make it a truly repre- 
sentative body of the whole people, restoring to city gov- 
ernment the vigor and directness of control, and the 
element of personal interest in the governing power, 
which was lost in abandoning the town-meeting. The 
number may be as large as can conveniently assemble for 
public deliberation. In a city of moderate size this would 
afford room for an ample representation of all elements 
of the population. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 67 

It is idle to talk of wholly eliminating the influence 
of political parties from any form of municipal govern- 
ment. Our habits of political thought and action will 
always make themselves felt. The existing party organ- 
izations will always be brought to bear with more or less 
effect. Non-partisan city government must be secured 
by indirection, if at all. Fix upon the head of the gov- 
ernment a degree of responsibility which he cannot evade 
and dare not abuse, and it will matter little what party 
label he wears. Make the representative body so broad 
that no scheme can be carried through it on party lines 
or from partisan motives, and the government will be as 
free of partisan influences as any government can be 
where political parties exist. 

It is not for me to advise the people of Newburyport 
to disturb or experiment with their local government. 
These suggestions are contributed to the general discus- 
sion of a question of the highest importance to the inhab- 
itants of cities. There is much reason to believe that the 
reform of city government in general, at least in cities of 
moderate size, must be sought and may be found in the 
application of the principles thus briefly indicated. If the 
occasion should arise, this city is perhaps as well adapted 
as any, in size, character, and situation, to put their 
merits to proof. 

Yet when all discussion touching forms of govern- 
ment is ended, the character of the people remains the 
vital thing. A thrifty and vigorous race will prosper in 
spite of bad government. There is in all healthy human 
society a tendency to improve its condition. It was long 
ago observed that no form or degree of misgovernment 
will do so much to make the situation of the people 
worse as the instinctive effort of every individual to 



68 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

improve his own situation will do to make it better. It 
was a remarkable body of men that peopled this region. 
They were predestined, by their own qualities, to political 
independence, but they would have grown great in spite 
of crowns or parliaments. If the folly of a mad king 
had not driven the American colonists to throw off his 
rule, if it were possible to conceive of the colonies as 
continuing dependencies of Great Britain, the character 
of the Puritan immigration would have raised up here, in 
the fullness of time, a state so mighty as to overshadow 
the imperial power of the mother-country herself. It is 
no light task to hold up the standard raised b}^ such a 
race. Think of the great men who have gone in and out 
upon this very spot. If some magic power could summon 
back to their former haunts the shades of the illustrious 
dead whose names and memory are among the treasures 
of this city, what a glorious company would people these 
homes and streets! Thomas Parker, Samuel Sewall, 
Edward Rawson, William Dummer, the John Lowells 
and Francis Cabot Lowell, Tristram Dalton, George 
Whitefield; Jonathan, Charles, and Patrick Tracy Jack- 
son; Thomas Dawes, Theophilus Bradbury, George 
Thatcher, Robert Treat Paine, Jacob Perkins, Nicholas 
Pike, William Wheelwright, Dudley A. Tyng, Edward 
Bass, Samuel Webber, Cornelius C. Felton, William 
Plumer, Daniel Dana, John Quincy Adams, Theophilus 
Parsons, Rufus King, Benjamin and Simon Greenleaf, 
Caleb Cushing, Lucy Hooper, Hannah F. and Benjamin 
A. Gould, George Peabody, Benjamin Hale, George R. 
Noyes, Samuel S. Wilde, William Lloyd Garrison, John 
Pierpont, Samuel J. May, George Lunt, James Parton, 
Eben F. Stone, — a galaxy of pioneers, preachers, schol- 
ars, poets, philanthropists, jurists, statesmen, scientists, 
mechanicians, merchant princes, captains of industry, 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 69 

"on fame's eternal bead-roll worthie to be fyled." These 
men have given to Newburyport a character and distinc- 
tion that will remain so long as the city stands. Cities 
live in their character, not less than individuals. The 
home of great men, the theater of great events, the birth- 
place of ideas or forces which have helped to move the 
world — these possess an interest which space cannot 
limit nor time subdue. It was the character of the men 
and women of Newburyport that gave the town its fame. 
It was peopled by the flower of the Puritan immigration; 
— narrow men, perhaps; bigoted; austere; but meaning 
to be just and determined to be free. Some things they 
did which timid souls would forget, but nothing which can- 
not be openly avowed. Much of the wealth of old New- 
buryport, no doubt, came over the bar in the cabin or 
hold of the privateer, a hanger-on of war now passed into 
disrepute, and none too soon — but privateering was then 
legitimate warfare. Every step in their history was 
traced in character and courage. Look at them in the 
times of the embargoes. Foremost as they had been 
among the patriots of the Revolution, when the war of 
181 2 was forced upon the people, — an unnecessary war, 
pursued by measures of folly, more disastrous at home 
than abroad, — the men of Newburyport stood up and 
denounced it as foolish and unnecessary. They opposed 
it openly. They despised the embargo, and trampled it 
under their feet. And who shall say that this bold and 
manly stand against the blunders of an incompetent 
administration was not truer patriotism than the servile 
complaisance that knows no right or wrong save at the 
command of power .f^ The patriot is he who sets his 
country right, and stands in the way when it goes wrong. 
If this is not patriotism, the JR-evolution was not. I do 
not say that these men were all heroes, but they were not 



70 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

cowards, hypocrites, nor sycophants. They were neither 
ashamed nor afraid. It is an inspiration to recall them. 
It is a virtue to emulate them. Long may they be remem- 
bered here, and long may the race survive upon this spot 
which they made forever memorable! 

And as it is character, not numbers, that distinguishes 
a city, I trust that no citizen of Newburyport is disturbed 
by the slow growth of its population. The welfare of a 
city, or the happiness of its people, does not turn upon 
its place in a census-table. Moderate growth is natural, 
healthy, and desirable. The rapid swelling of a city may 
be no less a symptom or prognostic of disease than the 
swelling of a limb. It is no ill-fortune that the character, 
the identity of old Newburyport has not been swallowed 
up and effaced in the swarming population which now 
sets toward cities, and submerges others less fortunate 
than this. There is a satisfaction in thinking of this 
ancient community, robed in the dignity of her past, 
content to stand aloof from the hustling crowd in noble 
disdain of the folly that sees, or thinks it sees, greatness 
in bigness, — a weakness from which not even statesmen 
are exempt, even more fatal to nations than to men 
and cities. It is not difficult to account for the position 
of Newburyport. But for one of her most characteristic 
and interesting traits, her people today would be counted 
by tens or scores of thousands. Newburyport may fairly 
claim to have been the great colonizing town of the great 
colonizing county of the great colonizing state of the 
Union. Immediately after the Revolution, and to some 
extent before it, her people began to look abroad for 
"fresh fields and pastures new." Their pioneer blood 
would not allow them to rest in one spot, however attract- 
ive. The movement thus begun has never ceased. Her 
people have been scattered like the seeds of the pine, and 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 



like the seeds of the pine they have taken root and 
grown. There is hardly a quarter of the earth in which 
they are not to be found. It was said at one of your 
anniversaries, a few years ago, that in the single city of 
New York were then living three hundred natives of 
Newburyport. Her filaments cover the whole North and 
the great West as with an invisible web, every thread 
vibrating to her influence and binding some new and 
distant community to the parent stock. Her children 
have settled states; they have built towns and founded 
cities. If you would number the people of Newburyport, 
look for them by the rivers and bays of Maine, on the 
hills of New Hampshire, in the valleys of Vermont, 
where they were among the first pioneers; beyond the 
Hudson and the Ohio, along the shores of the great lakes, 
on the banks of the Father of Waters, all over the plains 
that stretch to the range of the Rockies, and beyond to 
the Golden Gate — in every prosperous community 
between the Atlantic and Pacific seas on which the genius 
of New England has set its mark; wherever New Eng- 
land energy has cleared the forest, planted the soil, opened 
the mine, or harnessed the stream to the wheels of indus- 
try; wherever New England thrift bears fruit of pros- 
perity; wherever the New England conscience strength- 
ens public probity and holds up the standard of public 
morals; wherever the sterling New England character 
guides the thought and shapes the policy of states — there 
you will find the people of Newburyport, still sowing and 
gathering the harvest first planted on Quascacunquen by 
Thomas Parker and his little company, near three cen- 
turies ago; carrying the old town in their hearts; feeling 
her own pulsations in their blood; inspired with her 
memory and vindicating her example; — their numbers, 
character, and influence bearing witness that if Newbury- 



72 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

port has lost her own, she has taken the nation in 
exchange. 

What events confront us in the coming half-century 
which opens with this day, it is not given us to know. 
There will be changes, many and great. Science has but 
begun to unlock the secrets and unloose the forces of 
nature. Thought is everywhere fermenting today, as 
never before, with the complex problems of human 
society. Even the character of nations seems changing 
— let the American people look to it that their own is 
not transformed. For Newburyport, the vista opens upon 
the fairest prospects. Seated upon this beautiful spot, 
where the Merrimac, theme of poetry and romance, 
returns its waters to the sea; where the eye takes in a 
prospect of enchanting beauty — the spires and gables of 
the city, the smiling fields, the solemn woods, the silver 
river, the majestic waste of ocean; — endowed with every 
agency devised by man for the promotion of health, 
comfort, social elevation, and material welfare; planted 
upon the stable foundation of varied and flourishing 
industries; alive with intelligence, charity, culture, relig- 
ion, and crowned with the halo of splendid memories, — 
such are the happy conditions in which the record of the 
new half-century begins. May it be written in prosperity. 
May it be written in honor. May it be such that they 
who make it can look upon it with satisfaction, and they 
who come after with gratitude and pride. And when the 
chapter is closed; when the children of Newburyport, on 
the returning anniversary, gather about the ancient 
mother to crown her with the garland of an hundred 
years; may she say of this generation, with fond remem- 
brance, as she turns her smile undimmed by age on those 
who then surround her, — "Among all my children who 
have cherished me with stout hearts and willing hands, 
they too were worthy of my love and my benediction." 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 73 

"Thanks be to God," from Mendelssohn's "Elijah," was sung by 
the chorus, and the benediction was pronounced by Dr. Beane, of the 
Unitarian church. 

Nason's Orchestra played Sousa's march, " Hail to the Spirit of 
Liberty," and this closed the program. 

The ushers at the hall were Charles Kelleher, head usher ; Fred 
L. Medcalf, Oscar Thurlow, Rufus Reed, Warren Somerby, John 
Kelley, Walter Whitmore, and Frank Kelley. 



r 






/ 




COL. EBEN F. STONE, 

PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST COMMON COUNCIL. 



THE ANNIVERSARY BANQUET 



THE ANNIVERSARY BANQUET 



After the literary exercises at city hall, on Monday, the distin- 
guished guests were driven about the city and shown some of the 
beautiful scenery that graces our municipality, historic houses, and 
many objects that are of interest. The magnificent High street, with 
its graceful arch of elm and maple trees, was particularly admired. 
The guests were then driven back to city hall, where they were joined 
shortly before 2 o'clock by Captain Manney and other officers from the 
battleship Massachusetts. They proceeded to Armory hall, on Meni- 
mac street, where the dinner was in waiting. There were five long 
tables running from a head table located at the easterly end of the 
hall, and the seats were quite generally filled. 

It was 2 :20 when Mayor Brown rapped to order and said : 

Ladies and Gentlefnen : — Dinner is to be served at once, and I 
shall detain you for a moment only. I would assure our invited 
guests that we are most happy to welcome them to the hospitality of 
the city of Newburyport. Our guests have doubtless sat at richer 
banquets, served in more stately halls. I cannot think, however, that 
they have often been received where the honor of their presence was 
more truly appreciated or where the pleasui"e of their hosts was 
greater than is ours this afternoon. 

I will ask the company to remain standing while grace is said by 
the Reverend Mr. Wrisrht. 



yS FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

MENU. 

Consomme Printanier. 

Olives. Tomatoes. Cucumbers. Radishes. 

Salmon and Green Peas. 

New Potatoes. 

Lobster Cutlets, Tomato Sauce, 

Chicken Croquettes. 

Banana Fritters, Wine Sauce. 

Lobster Salad. 

Frozen Pudding. Sauce Curacoa, 

Sultana Roll, Claret Sauce. 

Cafe Parfait. Orange Bomb, 

Watermelon Ice Cream. 

Neapolitan. Fancy Ices. 

Assorted Cake. Macaroons. 

Strawberries and Cream. 

Pineapple Cheese. Water Crackers. 

Salted Almonds. 

Coffee. Appolinaris. 

Dinner committee : Moses Brown, mayor, chairman ; Alfred Pearson, 
John D. Parsons, Albert W. Rantoul, Richard J. Foley, Leonard W. Sar- 
gent. 

Seated at the head table was Mayor Brown, the presiding officer. 
At his right was Lieutenant-Governor John L. Bates, and at his left 
was Congressman W. H. Moody. Others at the table were the fol- 
lowing officers from the United States battleship Massachusetts: Cap- 
tain H. N. Manney, Lieutenant-Commander Roy C. Smith, Lieuten- 
ant George R. Salisbury, Captain of Marines Harry Lee, Lieutenant 
C. J. Lang, Paymaster W. G. Littell, Assistant Surgeon B. L. 
Wright, Ensign L. Shane, Ensign Ward Kenneth Wortman ; also, 
Ensign C. Deligeorges, of the Royal Greek Navy ; and Rev. Arthur 
J. Teeling, of Lynn; Hon. William Reed, of Taunton; Hon. George 
Frederick Stone, of Evanston, 111. ; Senator Augustus P. Gardner, 
of Hamilton ; Hon. Harvey N. Shepard, of Boston ; Hon. Albert E. 
Pillsbury, of Boston ; President Arthur Withington of the board of 
aldermen, President Robert G. Dodge of the common council, ex- 
Mayor Albert Currier, Hon. John J. Currier, Rev. Arthur H. Wright, 
Superintendent of Streets George W. Langdon, of this city. 

At the other tables were the following : Mrs. Moses Brown ; Mrs. 
W. A. Rand, Seabrook, N. H. ; Alexander Patillo, Gloucester; Arthur 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 79 

P. Brown; F. D. Henderson, Rowley; Charles H. Brown, Boston; 
W. P. Ambrose, Georgetown ; Henry Feibelman, Dorchester; Mr. 
and Mrs. Louis F. Barton ; Clifton B. Heath, Merrimac; George H. 
W. Hayes, Ipswich ; Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Swett, Chelsea ; Mrs. J. H. 

C. Campbell, Boston; Miss Frances E. Huse, Frederick K. Piper, 
Boston; John H. Brown, Ipswich; John Q. A. Pettingell, Salisbury; 

D. W. Davis, Amesbury ; B. A. Appleton ; Lieutenant-Commander 
John L. Gow, United States Navy; Mrs. John L. Gow, West New- 
ton; Moody Kimball ; Daniel H. Fowle; Percy B. Jackson; George 
H. Stevens; Charles W. Ordway, West Newbury; Rev. Myron Oak- 
man Patton ; Edward P. Shaw ; George Clapp Andrews ; Edward P. 
Shaw, Jr. ; N. N.Jones; Grosvenor T. Blood; James F. Carens; 
Mr. and Mrs. George P. Tilton ; Mrs. G. R. Saulsbury ; E. B. Bishop, 
Haverhill ; Richard T. Noyes, Newbury ; Orrin J. Gurney ; William 
A.Johnson; J. Otis Winkley ; George P. Sargent; E. C. Sawyer, 
Beverly ; Charles D. Brown, Gloucester ; Charles L. Perkins ; George 
H. Plumer; Willard J. Hale; Edmund Bartlet; Leonard W. Sargent; 
Miss Elizabeth N. Sargent ; Rev. Dr. Hovey and wife ; Arthur L. 
Huse ; Arthur W. Huse ; Nathaniel Appleton ; Edwin S. Dodge ; 
Mrs. Gray; Dr. J. J. Healey ; John T. Lunt ; Mr. and Mrs. James 

E. Whitney; W. W. Coffin; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph W. Stover, New 
York; Rev. F. G. Alger; L. D. Morrill, Byfield; William J. 
Magowan ; Mr. and Mrs. W. Herbert Noyes; Mr. and Mrs. Henry 
B. Little; Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Pearson; John B. Blood ; William 
G. Fisher; Dr. W.W. Pillsbury; Edmund S. Spalding; Mrs. Arthur 
H. Wright; E. P. Dodge; S. Augustus Bridges; Richard Newell, 
West Newbury ; Lawrence W. Brown ; George A. Schofield, Ips- 
wich : Rev. W. A. Rand, Seabrook ; Wallace Bates, Lynn ; C. W. 
Questrom, Maiden; Charles A. Bliss; Lucius H. Greeley; Mr. and 
Mrs. Emil Mollenhauer, Boston ; Hayden Bosworth Harris, Haver- 
hill ; Mrs. David A. Andrews ; Mrs. John J. Currier ; Miss Susan 
M . Coffin ; Benjamin F. Stanley ; C. W. Pike, Boston ; Mrs. Mary 
L. Hodgdon, Boston; Mrs. M. O. Patton; Dr. and Mrs. E. C. Gil- 
man, Worcester ; William W. Bartlett, Boston; F. Burbank ; Edward 
A. Hale; Moses H. Fowler; John J. Kelley; Frank H. Kelley ; 



8o FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Charles Kelleher : F. L. Medcalf; Lawrence P. Stanton, Beverly; 
Walter Whitmore ; O. G. Thurlow; Joseph E. Buzzell, Methuen ; 
J. W. Sargent ; James E. Mannix ; Philip S. Fiske, Boston ; William 
C. Coffin; Jere Healey ; Timothy Herlihy ; John D. Parsons; Wil- 
liam H. Bent, Lowell; Josiah L. Hale ; Albert W. Rantoul ; Nathan 
N. Withington ; Mrs. L. W. Jaques, Boston; Mr. and Mrs. J. H. 
Balch, Jr. ; J. Hermann Carver ; J. Eugene Fowle ; Mr. amd Mrs. 
G. H. Fitts; Weston K. Lewis, Boston; Rev. C. P. Mills; John B. 
Seward, Boston; Mrs. Mary N. Blood; Mrs. Mary Rousseau De La 
Croix, Oxford, N. C. ; S. D. Mard, New Orleans, La. ; Charles A. 
Coburn ; Arthur H. Berry; C. E. Rowell, Merrimac; Miss Edith A. 
Stanley; Mrs. O. J. Gurney ; Thomas T. Upton; David G. Bartlett, 
Lvnn ; George W. Pike, Lynn; John W. Winder; Clarissa J. G. 
Winder; M. C. Shaw; Mrs. John A. Greeley; Miss Thetis G. Ques- 
trom ; C. O. Noyes, Georgetown ; Sam Rogers, West Newbury ; 
Thomas G. Gerrish, Lowell ; A. A. Spofford, Lawrence ; F. H. 
Rundlett. 

After the dinner the Orpheus male quartet, composed of Warren 
C. Stanwood, Dr. G. E. L. Noyes, Richard G. Adams, and Leonard 
S. Choate, sang the "Champagne Song." 

The after dinner speaking then began. Mayor Brown introducing 
Lieutenant-Governor Bates, in the following words : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — We liave arrived at the post-prandial 
period of the feast, and I shall not presume to occupy more of the 
time than may suffice to express the happiness which the day thus far 
has brought to all. 

The remainder of the program will be informal in the sense that 
no regular toasts or sentiments have been prepared, no special subjects 
have been assigned. Distinguished gentlemen are present who have 
consented to address us, and T am sure that the symposium now about 
to follow will be among the most enjoyed and best remembered feat- 
ures of the anniversary. 

The first guest whom I shall have the honor of presenting to the 
company is, save one, the highest official of the commonwealth. To 
him I know you will accord the warmest welcome, not wholly, per- 
haps not chiefly, on account of his great station in the state but 
because of his high personal character. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 8l 

I am very happy to present the Hon. John L. Bates, lieutenant- 
governor of the state of Massachusetts. 



ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN L. BATES 

Mr. President., Ladies and Gentlemen : — I assure you that I 
esteem it a special privilege to be permitted on this auspicious day to 
bring to you the greetings of His Excellency Winthrop Murray 
Crane, governor of the commonwealth, and with his greetings to bring 
you also the congratulations of the people of the commonwealth. 

The fifty years during which Newburyport has been a city have 
been momentous years in the history of the commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts. Our state never takes a holiday. She never goes on a vaca- 
tion. She never drops anchor. Captain, as does your noble craft, her 
namesake. Her fires are always lighted. She is not like Alexander 
looking for new worlds to conquer, but with every cycle of the sun 
she makes a new conquest, she extends her arms farther and farther 
into regions more and more remote and brings them under the sphere 
of her influence. She renders humanity more and more indebted to 
her. During that fifty years she has contributed largely of blood and 
of treasure for the national life and the national honor. She has 
listened to the voice of the down-trodden ; she has sent the adminis- 
trators of her benefactions wherever care and want have furrowed the 
faces of men. She has grown rich. Her manufactures compete suc- 
cessfully in every market in the world. Her merchandise has gone 
across all seas. Her inventive genius has raised the burden from the 
back of flesh and blood and placed it on the back of iron and of steel. 
Her preachers have called men to their duty and awakened conscience 
far beyond her own borders. Her poets have sung songs that, wafted 
on the breezes of the heavens, have touched the hearts of all men. 
She has been living in a golden age, which is not yet complete, for 
she was never cleaner, brighter, more beautiful, or grander, than she 
is today. And I am pleased to bring you the greetings of such a com- 
monwealth because you have exemplified the principles for which she 
stands. You have worthily maintained her traditions. 

I wish to congratulate you, Mr. President, and all who have had 
a part in arranging for this celebration, upon the perfection of the 
plan and the beautiful way in which it is being worked out. It shows 
already that the celebration is to be a complete success. 

I have noticed particularly this official program which has been 
published, and which reflects so much credit upon those who have 
11 



82 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

edited and published it. I see as I glance over its pages that your 
historian, in his interesting sketch, in his description of Newburyport 
and her surroundings, does not dwell so much on manufactures, so 
much on blocks or palaces, so much on parks and avenues, as on the 
people of Newburyport. I read this sentence : 

"This community has produced or been the home of an unbrokeu suc- 
cession of eminent men and women, from Thomas Parker to the living 
authors of today, statesmen, orators, theologians, jurists, authors, and 
merchants too many to be mentioned." 

When upon one occasion a distinguished son of Massachusetts 
was asked by a boasting Westerner as to what crops Massachusetts 
produced, the reply was " Massachusetts produces men." 

If you recall some months ago when the cit}' of Pekin was 
relieved, when the hundred thousand and more barbarians had been 
successfully beaten off by the few who represented the highly civilized 
nations of the earth, it was proposed to commemorate the relief of that 
city by striking off a medal, and this is tlie legend that it is to bear, — 
it is an ancient legend — "Men, not Vv'alls, make a city." 

I come to Newburyport to find that the idea that runs through 
the whole of the masterly discourse that we listened to this morning — 
"Men, not walls, make a city." I go down here to your chain bridge, 
which was one of the wonders of the time when it was built, the 
forerunner of the great Brooklyn bridge and all others of that char- 
acter, and I see not so much the bridge as the man whose mind 
conceived it and brought it into being. I look out across the harbor. 
At the very mouth I see lying there the magnificent battleship. 1 
think not so much of the ship as of the men who built her, and the 
men who command her and guide her across the trackless deep, 
following the stars in their courses. I take my passage on the train, 
and behind the iron horse I go from ocean to ocean on the 
bands of steel that cross the back of the continent. I go aboard one 
of those floating empires that ply between this continent across the 
ocean and to the other side, and in all these things there comes before 
me again the truth of the legend that "Men, not walls, make a city." 
I turn the pages of history. I review the story from Bunker Hill to 
Yorktown; from Sumter to Appomatox ; from Manila Bay to Santiago, 
and everywhere I read again that legend, " Men, not walls, make a 
city." And 1 come to Newburyport and I read that the names of 
Newburyport's distinguished sons are too numerous to mention. I 
hear the orator of the clay mention the names of some of them, and 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWB17RYPORT 83 

I say> Yes, Newburyport is entitled to the congratulations of the 
conmmonwea'fh on this her birthday, because she has in her life so 
well typir- ^Id commonwealth, I remember not only Thomas 

Parker, her . ii.Jer, eminent theologian and more eminent scholar, 
who typifies '-'■ r intellectual life of the commonwealth, but I remem- 
ber a!' !.ie dust of George Whiteiield, representative ot" the 
religious spirit of the commonwealth, lies under yonder church, an 
inspiration to this communit}'. I remember that here in Newbury- 
;:sort was F ^ Cabot Lowell, the enterprising merchant of Massa- 
' wh OvSe eflx)rts cotton manufacture was introduced into 
v/hom the city of Lowell stands itself as a monument, 
,.^raises cire chanted by more than a million singing 
ij. j.nd looms on the banks of every rushing river. I read, too, 
of la^ro Perkins, representative of the inventive mind of Massachu- 
setts, //hich has done so much to uplift the world. I read of 
Theophilus Parsons, representative of the legal jurisprudence of this 
commonwealth, the great, luminous chief justice of her highest court. 
I look in yonder court, in front of your city hall, and I see standing 
there, in his coat of bronze, on his pedestal of granite, that man of 
Newburyport who would be heard and who would not retract ; the 
man who from here kindled the flame that grew into a conflagration 
that melted the shackles of a race and made slaves men ; the man 
whom men taunted but whom now they revere; the humanity-loving 
representative of the commonwealth, William Lloyd Garrison. 

And as I think of Parker and of Whitefield, of Lowell, of Per- 
kins, of Parsons and of Garrison, I recall the fact that these are but types 
of a numerous body of men that have made the history of this commu- 
nity glorious from 1635 down to the pi'esent time. I congratulate 
you, then, not only on the men of the past but also on the men and 
the women of today, and extend to you the best wishes of the people 
of this commonwealth, that you may continue to maintain the high 
standard of citizenship that has been maintained throughout your 
history. 

The mayor then spoke as follows : 

Ladies and Gentleme?z : — We are especially fortunate in the 
presence of our congressman. The old Essex district has in general 
been represented by men of marked ability and character. Did time 
permit, we could recall upon that roll of honor many a name, mention 
of which should arouse enthusiasm here. 



84 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

It is no ordinary compliment to say of our present member that 
he has sustained, fully sustained, the prestige of this historic district 
here and at the capital. 

Beside the qualities which his record would indicate, he possesses 
the advantage of ancient Newbury lineage. I beg leave to introduce 
the Hon. William H. Moody, of Haverhill. 



ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM H. MOODY 

Ladies^ Gentlemen^ and Friends : — I feel somewhat slighted 
at the very beginning that the quartet should not have treated me as 
they did the lieutenant-governor and sung an anthem, evidently 
especially selected for his benefit, "The Vintage of Champagne." 

I feel, Mr. Mayor, almost as if I had a personal right to be 
present on any occasion of this kind in the city of Newburyport. As 
some of you may know, I not only have a Newbury lineage, but was 
born in the old town of Newbury and lived there the early years of 
my lite. Not only that, but I was born the eighth in descent from 
that William Moody who landed on the shores of the river Parker in 
1635 and was one of the founders of the old town of Newburyport. 
I therefore feel that I have the right to say in all sincerity that nothing 
of joy or pain which comes upon any part of the soil of the old town 
is indifferent to me. 

But, Mr. Mayor, I suppose it was not for the almost forgotten 
circumstance of my birth and lineage that I have been given the honor 
of saying the few words which the proprieties of this occasion and the 
admonition (I may say) of those who extended to me the invitation 
prescribe. I suppose it is on account of the public position which, at 
the time being, by the fjivor of the people of the county of Essex, j 
now hold. 

I had indulged in the hope that during this period, for other 
reasons, the president of the United States might have been within 
the borders of the commonwealth. If here, I indulged in the hope 
he might be persuaded to favor us with a visit on this occasion. But 
reasons which the world knows, and with which the world without 
regard to difference of opinion sympathizes, have kept him elsewhere, 
Therefore it is perhaps left for me, after the greeting that has been 
brought by the lieutenant-governor, as your representative in her 
counsels today, to bring to you the greetings of the nation, her felicita- 
tions upon your honorable past, her congratulations upon your present, 
and her fond hopes for your happy and prosperous futui^e. As a 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 85 

token of the interest of the country in every one of its parts, I have 
the pleasure to see here today the representative of that most beloved 
arm of the public service, the navy of the United States. 

I had some thoughts suggested to me, as I think all of us had, by 
the most remarkable oration of our distinguished orator of the day, 
but as I glance down at my watch I find it won't do for me to enter 
into the consideration of them. But there was one thing that I cannot 
fail to notice in what he said of all the splendid history which has 
occurred in the fifty years which have elapsed since the beginning of 
the period which you now celebrate today. I suppose there are many 
present who can remember distinctly the beginning of that period ; 
remember the great change in condition which has occurred from that 
time to this ; the marvelous development in the productive power of 
man by his increased command over nature, his marvelous power of 
command over human suft'ering which the discoveries in medical and 
surgical science have produced for us all. There was one thing which 
our orator said which seems to me to deserve our careful considera- 
tion. We know how the inventions of machinery have multiplied and 
intensified the activities of men — of the mechanic, of the professional 
man. Why, Mr. Mayor, if it were not for the art of stenography and 
typewriting I could not answer my mail in that part of the twenty-four 
hours that I could devote to it. The telephone, the telegraph, the 
stenographer multiply the activities of a man so that he lives a lifetime 
almost in a decade. Mr. Pillsbury told us this morning, in the cold 
figures of the case, that one man today, with the aid of modern 
machinery, produces the work of seventeen men fifty years ago. 

He doesn't get the pay of seventeen men fifty years ago, and it is 
no wonder that the men who are doing that work and producing that 
result should be looking about them to see the advantage that is 
coming to them from this increased command of man over nature. 
It manifests itself most of all, the country over, in the demand for 
shortened hours of labor. Fifty years ago there was no ten-hour day ; 
there was no twelve-hour day. There was a limitless day's work. 
Now, today, the aspiration of the working man the world over is the 
day of eight hours. Can he ask for less when he is doing for the 
community what has been described to us today ? 

There was but a single other thought from the oration to which I 
desire to direct your attention, and that was the thought of the influ- 
ence of New England throughout the whole country. It has been 
commonly said that the influence of New England has ceased to be 
important in the country at large. I am not quite sure whether that 



S6 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THK 

is true or not. I am not quite sure how much less the influence of 
New England is today in the affairs of the country than it was fifty 
years or a hundred years ago. But assuming it to be true that in 
direct influence she does exercise less power than she did fifty years 
ago or a hundred years ago, in indirect influence she exercises the 
great power of the nation. It is my fortune to see at the heart of the 
nation people who come back from its different parts to represent 
their constituencies there. I have a namesake representing one 
district in the distant state of Oregon. He traces his ancestiy back to 
my own family in your own town of Newbury. It is the New Eng- 
land men and the children and children's children of New England 
men, who have gone out into the West and the Northwest and con- 
quered that country and redeemed it for civilization, who are now 
coming back to govern the country through the ideas of New England. 
It is the New England idea of self-gov^ernment, the New England 
idea of intelligence, of public education, which is governing the 
countr}' today. If the mere dwellers of New England are not govern- 
ing it, those whom they have sent out are governing it by their ideas. 
So I believe we can still say, as was said of old by our poet, 

'■ I slug New England as she lights 
Her fires in every prairie's midst. 
And where the bright and glancing stars 

Shine clear in Southern sky 
She still is there, guardian on the tower, 
To open for the world a purer power." 



Mayor Brown then said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — There is good reason that we of 
Newburyport should appreciate highly the visit of the Massachusetts 
to our waters and the presence of her commander and her officers at 
our board. 

Many a stirring story could be told of the part which men of 
Newburyport have had in battles on the sea. 

This hour, however, is our guests', and to the officers of the navy 
we would pay especial honor. 

I suppose the reason that the ancient custom of toast and senti- 
ment was omitted in the details of this dinner was because it was 
known that no suitable provision had been made for their proper 
drinking. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBUUYPORT 87 

If at any time this omission could cause regret it should be now, 
for no vintage could be too precious in which to pledge our admira- 
tion for the navy of the United States. 

As representing that splendid service, I now present Lieutenant- 
Commander Roy S. Smith, of the navy. 



ADDPvESS OF LIEUT.-COM. ROY S. SMITH 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — I suppose it would be quite impossi- 
ble for me to add anything to what has been said by so many people 
about Newbury port and her people and manufactures and literature 
and everything of that sort, and I don't suppose the people of New- 
buryport would want to hear anything of that kind from me. But 
about the navy there is not often an opportunity for a naval man to 
say an3'thing to a civilian audience, and on each of such occasions he 
ought to try to do something for the navy. 

Well, I can only say that the navy has two principal duties to 
perform. One of those is to drill and exercise and get ships ready in 
case of emergencies to meet the enemy if that occasion should arise; 
and the other duty is to make the acquaintance of people, in order 
that people may know what we are and what we are doing, and may 
help to make us a little more than we have been yet. I never have a 
chance to enter into a conversation, with somebody from the West 
for instance, that I don't always bring that point up. 

In regard to the navy, there is just one thought that ought to 
appeal to everyone without exception. That is, in case we should 
come to war in the future with any nation — which we don't expect, 
but if we should — the first meeting with the enemy will probably be 
on the water. We might, perhaps, have a war with two nations 
without fighting on the sea. One would be with England, but there 
is scarcely much probability of that. The other would be with 
Mexico, and there is less of that. Any other nation going to war 
with us would meet us first on the water, and in order to be ready to 
meet those nations we need, first, ships. 

In regard to getting ships, we have one very valuable ally and 
that is the ship-builder. The ship-builder will see that we get the 
ships, and we are increasing all the time. The latest comparison that 
I remember to have seen states that we are now third in the list of 
powers of the world in the strength of the navy. We are excelled at 
present only by two nations, England and France. Now, we don't 
expect to be the strongest navy in the world, but we should like to be 



88 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

strong enough so that in case of trouble we would be able to do what 
is expected of the navy. 

As I said, I think that the ships will be coming all the time, 
because we have the ship-builders to help us, but we haven't anybody 
to help us get men and officers. The reason is that when an officer 
goes into the navy he ceases to be a constituent. The only way that 
I know of to have the personnel increase with the ships is to simply 
have a law that there shall be so many officers for every hundred tons 
of shipping, and then when a new ship is authorized and arranged for 
we shall get the officers and men. As it is now, we haven't enough 
to man the ships we have. 

We are very glad to be performing the second duty of the navy — 
to make the acquaintance of the people — and we are glad to be here 
on the fiftieth anniversary of their establishment of Newburyport as a 
city. It will also give us much pleasure to be present at the next 
similar celebration. 

The mayor then called on a bearer of a distinguished Virginian 
name. Captain Harry Lee, of the United States Marine Corps, who 
spoke as follows : 

ADDRESS OF CAPT. HARRY LEE 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — I arise to apologize. A great many 
apologies, ladies and gentlemen, for my ignorance of Newburyport 
and its history ; also, of its mother state, Massachusetts, of which you 
claim, and justly claim, to be proud. I expect to appeal to you today 
through a different course, nationalism through union. I would 
advise as a youngster that first comes union, statehood, and then town- 
or city-ship. Through union I expect to appeal, and my prayer is 
this, that fifty years hence may history say that Newburyport has 
increased many-fold in its commerce, its population, its finance, and 
its welfare. That is my prayer. 

Mr. Pillsbury was introduced in the following words : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — Those who were privileged to listen 
to the oration pronounced in city hall, this morning, will be glad to 
know that the orator of the day will speak again at the banquet. 

For the second time I have the honor to present the Hon. Albert 
E. Pillsbury, of Boston. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 89 

ADDRESS OF HON. ALBERT E. PILLSBURY 

Mr. Mayor., Ladies and Gentlemen: — I respond to this second 
call with some hesitation. Having had occasion this morning to say 
something at city hall, I observed that the instant I had finished and 
sat down the chorus hastened to sing "Thanks Be to God! " Fi-om 
the manner in which their performance was received by the audience 
I thought they appeared to be regarded as a remarkably intelligent 
and appreciative chorus. Under these somewhat uncertain conditions 
I prefer to regard this second invitation as the usual formal compli- 
ment extended on occasions of this character to the man who has 
already said quite enough and who is neither expected nor desired to 
say more. 

Yet, if I were certain that I had not exhausted the patience of 
this audience, there is one topic to which I would like to call its 
attention for a single moment, with apologies to the gentlemen who 
are still laboring with speeches behind me, whose agony, I assure 
them, I will not prolong. 

I have had the experience, which probably has been shared by all 
who have been called upon to perform a like duty under like circum- 
stances — to speak in public at Newburyport, — of finding myself 
confronted with the serious question of what to omit. There is so 
much to say of Newburyport, so much that can be justly said in 
praise of Newburyport, of the people of Newburyport, of its place in 
the history of the country, of its influence in the counsels of the 
country, that it is difficult to know what to say and what to leave 
unsaid. 

We were looking, this morning, a moment at the picture of old 
Newburyport in the heyday of her prosperity, a picture without a 
parallel in the history of New England. It is absolutely unique in 
the history of New England: a most brilliant and fascinating picture, 
to which we are liable to look back with regret. I have almost felt 
such regret, myself, in reading the history of Newburyport. But 
would you exchange your situation today for theirs.'' Consider a 
moment. I suppose not one of the most splendid of those mansions 
in which the old Newburyport gentry dispensed the hospitality of 
princes was comfortable either in summer or winter. Coal as fuel 
was then unknown, and door and window screens had not been 
invented. They shivered in winter in the bleak climate of this 
Atlantic coast, and they were exposed to all the depredations in sum- 
mer from which we are now easily protected by modern inventions. 



12 



9° 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



Every house in this city today is comfortable throughout the most 
inclement season, from cellar to attic, with coal fires. 

They obtained their water supply from more or less contaminated 
wells and springs. It is no doubt true that the pestilences which 
enter the history of the colony, the history of New England, were 
more or less due to this cause or the town pump. You touch a tube 
in any part of your house, and pure water flows as when Moses smote 
the rock. 

Their streets, through which they drove those elegant equipages 
of which the Newburyport historians tell us, were muddy lanes com- 
pared with yours. The carriages themselves were then the possession 
of the rich. Now you step at your own door upon the street car, the 
people's carriage, and ride in any direction for a trifle so insignificant 
that it seems impossible that Mr. Shaw should grow rich by taking 
them. Long journeys were then difficult, laborious, often danger- 
ous. Now you cross the continent in a flying hotel in less time than 
it would have taken them to go from here to New York or Albany. 

Communication was then by tardy and irregular mails. You 
send your messages on the wings of steam or of lightning, or you 
touch a bell and talk with your correspondent in Chicago or Wash- 
ington as though face to face. 

Information of events was then tardy and meagre. Today the 
daily newspaper lies upon the breakfast table, bringing the day's 
history of the world. 

Newburyport was never without books, but today the public 
library, the people's university, in which there is a liberal education 
for everyone who can read (and who here cannot?), holds out to 
every inhabitant of the city the world's treasure of thought and 
learning. 

Then the sick were cared for painfully and with difficulty in the 
discomforts of primeval homes. Today the free hospital offers every 
luxury, every appliance for comfort and care. 
And so I might go on. 

The truth is that while the old days look attractive, while it is 
natural to speak of the period between the Revolution and the war of 
1812 as the golden age of Newburyport, the truth is that in everything 
which tends to promote health, comfort, social elevation, and mutual 
welfare, our situation is so far advanced that to go back to theirs 
would be a great hardship, 

Now, I have but one thing to add, and this, ladies and gentle- 
men, is addressed to you and not to the presiding officer. I am sorry 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 9I 

to be obliged to say it in his presence, but I can hardly ask him to go 
out in order that I may say it. One of the most admirable institutions 
which I have seen thus far in the course of this celebration, one of the 
most admirable of Newburyport institutions, one of which it is time 
that something was said, is the Newburyport mayor. Whether it was 
art or native modesty which led him to turn all his speeches in such a 
way that you could not give him the round of applause that he 
deserved and you were waiting to give him, I do not know, but you 
have now had the chance and I am very glad to confer the opportunity. 
Anything more admirable and graceful could not be conceived than 
the manner in which he has conducted the celebration down to this 
time — an unpractised hand, he tells me, though I cannot believe it. 

Mayor Brown then said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — I am about to call upon the senator 
for the third Essex district, and I desire at this time to make to that 
gentleman public acknowledgment of the interest which, during the 
session just ended, he has shown in our local affairs. 

The assistance he has rendered to us and to the town of Salisbury 
Is fully appreciated by the people of Newburyport, in whose name I 
welcome him at our table. 

I have the pleasure of presenting the Hon. Augustus P. Gardner, 
of Hamilton. 



ADDRESS OF HON. AUGUSTUS P. GARDNER 

Mr. Mayor., Ladies and Gentlemen: — I know very well to 
what His Honor refers when he speaks of my interest in legislation 
connected with Newburyport this year. I wish to disclaim all respon- 
sibility and to place it on the shoulders where it belongs — Represen- 
tatives Kimball and Pettingell. Such blame as you have to give you 
can put right on them, because they did it all. Senator Butler and I 
simply went through the motions and did the talking, while they did 
the work, and on behalf of my colleague from the fourth district I 
wish to disclaim all responsibility. 

Mr. Mayor, I am always very glad to come to Newburyport. You 
always treat me well here, and I am especially glad to be here when 
your beautiful city Is smiling under the summer sun, and when we can 
feel the breeze from the ocean, which reminds us of the glories of this 
ancient seaport. I always feel when I come to Newburyport that 
there the skies are bluer, and the grass greener, and the women more 



92 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



fair, and the men braver than anywhere else on earth. Now, I am 
aware that some of you may have heard me make a somewhat similar 
observation last year at Topsfield, and I am quite certain, unless my 
memory plays me false, that if I have not paid the same compliment 
to the people of my own town in Hamilton I have said something very 
like it. And I will go so far as to say that I had prepared a speech to 
be delivered at Gloucester with the same words in it, but for some 
reason or other I have decided to postpone it. But there is no insin- 
cerity whatever in the speech. Wherever I go in Essex county, it 
seems to me the fairest spot on the face of the globe. It seems to me 
in each town as if nothing could be more beautiful, just as the traveler, 
no matter in what part of the world he may be, can always see the 
pole star at due north. 

Mr. Mayor, I am well aware that after-dinner speakers, on occa- 
sions of this sort, prepare themselves by a somewhat superficial 
perusal of the history of the locality where they are being entertained, 
and I will unblushingly admit that I have burnished up my own some- 
what deficient knowledge of history by reading a most admirable 
work on the city of Newburyport, published in about 1850, by one 
Mrs. Smith. I have derived a considerable knowledge of your fellow 
citizens, sir, from that book. I may say that whereas I thought I 
understood something about Newburyport before, I now feel that I 
really understand the problems which have confronted you in 
the past. 

Mrs. Smith has explained, for instance, a matter which has 
always puzzled me. So far as I have been able to make out, the 
population of Newburyport has been almost at a standstill for a long 
time, and I have often heard various reasons given, but they have 
always seemed to me to be inadequate until I read Mrs. Smith's 
admirable book. Now, Mr. Mayor, I find that the reason that people 
do not come to live at Newburyport is because they are afraid ot 
earthquakes. I counted the number of earthquakes which she enumer- 
ated in Newburyport from i63Sto 1852, and there were just sixty-one 
of them. Can't you feel the ground almost tremble.'' Just think of 
the bravery of your people to stay here in a town which is liable at 
any time to undergo such an upheaval ! But that is not all that has 
kept your population down. How about caterpillars.'' Did you read 
about the plague of caterpillars which carried off an immense number 
of children from Newburyport in 1755.'' Let me read what a contem- 
porary writer says : 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 93 

" Many thousand acres of thick woods had the leaves and twigs of this 
year's growth entirely eaten up. They cleared off every green thing, so 
that the trees were as naked as in the depths of winter. They were larger 
than the common caterpillar. No river or pond could stop them ; they 
would swim like dogs, and traveled in uncountable armies. Cart and 
carriage wheels would be dyed green from the number they crushed in their 
progress, — " 

these caterpillars which removed the children of Newburyport ! Why, 
that contemporary writer would make Ananias blush. That cater- 
pillar w^ould make the gypsy moth hang his head in shame. 

But your history is full of many significant occurrences, — occur- 
rences which well demonstrate the sterling character of your inhabit- 
ants in the past, and attest the advanced public sentiment which has 
always obtained in this neighborhood. I find in your I'ecords that on 
the 31st day of May, in the year 1776 (mark the date, the 31st day of 
May), the town of Newburyport passed a vote approving of the 
Declaration of Independence. You can see that it must have been 
that which inspired Thomas Jefferson's pen to indite that document 
some two months later. If you will turn to your records you will 
find that is upon them. 

You will also find, in 1824, the town tendered a vote of thank.s 
to Mr. John Porter for unprecedented energy in collecting taxes. Mr. 
Mayor, think of your sires crowding to see who would pay their taxes 
first ! Think of their passing resolutions complimenting a tax gatherer 
on his activity ! Where could you find a brighter proof of good 
citizenship than in records on your town papers like that.? 

But they were not the greatest citizens, Mr. John Porter, or even 
those various worthies that have been enumerated this afternoon and 
that I felt sure would be enumerated, so I have looked up some other 
worthies for myself. I have heard a great many times of your heroes 
and heroines, but it remained for Mrs. Smith's book to reveal to me 
Mrs. Harriet Livermore. Undoubtedly Harriet Livermore's name to 
you is a household word, but to me she was new, and I wished to 
have further information than I could find on your records, which 
simply show this: "Harriet Livermore, in 1827, left Newburyport 
(which was bad), and preached at Tammany Hall, in New York 
(which was a great deal worse). Anyone may be pardoned for his 
curiosity in wondering whether the doctrines which she preached in 
Tammany Hall, in New York, in 1827, are the gospel according to 
St. Croker, today. 

But I shall not detain you any longer with the burden of these 
reminiscences from your own history. You have had many historians 



94 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

today, and probably by the time the day is over you will begin to 
think you know what it is all about. But I will call your attention, 
Mr. Mayor, to a law which was enacted by the General Court, in 
1767, which may be of great use to the people of Newburyport. It 
was a law by which your town was empowered to dispose of any 
persons whose presence was undesirable. If that law is on the 
statute books, as I have no doubt it is today, because they seldom 
repeal those special laws, I think you can always feel safe in the 
future against having an after-dinner speaker trespass on the time of 
his successors. 

Mayor Brown then spoke as follows : 

Ladies and Gentle?nen : — Our literary committee extended to 
several clergymen, born or formerly resident here, invitations to be 
present at this dinner. 

Among those invited were the Right Reverend Thomas M. 
Clark, D. D., bishop of Rhode Island ; the Reverend Ashbel G. 
Vermilye, D. D., of New York ; the Reverend Arthur J. Teeling, of 
Lynn ; the Rev. Albert W. Hitchcock, of Worcester ; and others. 

Unfortunately, several of these have been obliged to decline. Dr. 
Vermilye is critically ill. The bishop of Rhode Island, although just 
entering his ninetieth year, sends us a cheery, characteristic letter, 
presently to be read by the chairman of the committee, who has 
beside a letter from the Reverend Mr. Hitchcock. Of the clergy 
invited, the Reverend Father Teeling alone is present. For many 
years he lived among us, a good priest, an upright citizen. I present 
Reverend Arthur J. Teeling, of Lynn. 

ADDRESS OF REV. ARTHUR J. TEEIvING 

Mr. Mayor., Ladies and Gentlemen., My Good Friends of 
Newburyport : — It is indeed a pleasure for me to be once again 
among you and on such a happy occasion. Your kindly remem- 
brance and cordial welcome make me gladly realize that you regard 
me as still a friend. Most naturally I feel perfectly at home here, 
perfectly at home in this grand old city, — grand in its foundation, 
grand in its heroes of historic fame, grand in the achievements of its 
noble sons on land and sea in the defence and the development of our 
country, grand in its literature and in the arts and sciences, grand in 
its industrial, educational, charitable, and religious institutions, and 
grand in the love and the aifection of its sons and daughters, who 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 95 

gather here today to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the good 
city of Newburyport. 

Yes, my good friends, I feel perfectly at home here, for here I 
lived among you for nearly a quarter of a century ; here I made many 
friends, some of whom have passed away, while many still live here 
in the enjoyment of health, strength, and prosperity, — with which 
may God long bless them ! The years that I lived and labored among 
you were those of my young manhood, my early years in the priest- 
hood. Consequently the impressions made upon me were clear and 
forcible ; hence they are and will be indellible. I need not tell you 
that these impressions are of the most pleasant and friendly nature. 

You do well, my good friends, to celebrate this anniversary, the 
fiftieth of the old town of Newburyport as a city. Her sons and 
daughters and former residents do well to flock to the old home, to 
the banks of the old Merrimac, to the city of their birth or of their 
residence in by-gone days, to greet one another in fullness of heart, to 
enjoy the companionship of old associates, to partake of the hospitality 
of her generous people, and to hear her praises proclaimed in oratory 
and song by her gifted sons and daughters. 

I remember well and most pleasantly the two hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of the settlement of the old town, which we commem- 
orated not so long ago. I recall how it revived the history of the 
early settlement, — its substantial and healthy growth, — in the minds 
of both young and old, and how their hearts were filled with laudable 
pride in its glorious records. I was then a citizen of Newburyport, 
and I addressed you on that occasion as one of its clergymen. I can 
never forget the impression that that celebration made upon me. I 
believe in celebrations of this kind, because by them you are making 
history for future generations. And what is still more important, 
you are spreading out before the eyes of your children the history of 
your city in a manner and in a way that will impi'ess and enlighten 
them. As they advance in years they will look back upon this cele- 
bration, the fiftieth anniversary of their city, with happy recollections. 
They will treasure all they have heard and seen, and, if God permit 
them to live to see the next fiftieth anniversary, they will come back 
in memory to this day, and they will intelligently compute the pro- 
gress and advancement that shall have been made. 

I often think of this grand old city, and, looking back, my years 
spent in its pleasant abode seem to me the happiest and most con- 
tented of my life. 

I thank the gentlemen of the committee for giving me this oppor- 
tunity of saying a few words of hearty congratulation on this happy 



96 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

occasion to my friends of Newbury port, who have and always will 
have a warm place in my heart. May the good old city prosper, may 
her people ever be happy, is the wish of one of her heartiest of well- 
wishers. 

The mayor then called on Hon. E. P. Dodge, chairman of the 
literary committee, who read three letters, one from Bishop Clark, of 
Rhode Island ; one from W. C. Todd, of Atkinson, N. H. ; and one 
from P. K. Hills, Esq., only surviving member of the first city gov- 
ernment of Newburyport. The letters follow : 

LETTER FROM BISHOP CLARK 

I wish that I might be in Newburyport on June 24th and 25th, but I 
am just entering upon my ninetieth year and my age prevents me from 
traveling any distance. 

I remember with perfect distinctness Newburyport just as it was 
between eighty and ninety years ago, and I know of no survivor of my time. 

I was one of those who received President Monroe when he visited 
Newbixryport in 1817, as I was appointed to stand with the long row of boys 
along the old mall as he rode by on his splendid black horse. A few years 
later I went out of my father's house, late at night, in a rain storm, to await 
the arrival of Lafayette, and a company of cavalry made its appearance as I 
stood at the head of Green street, and did me the honor of asking in what 
direction the great French general was coming to town. I recollect, also, 
that the rain made great havoc with the arches and decorations which had 
been prepared for the occasion. 

The next morning, before breakfast, I was allowed to call upon Lafay- 
ette in his chamber, my father being one of the committee to receive him, 
and I well remember how he called me to his side, and said " My sou, if you 
live to be a man you must be a patriot and love your country." 

The embargo, and the great fire of 1811, and other causes, had com- 
bined to check the growth of the town, and in my boyhood there was 
scarcely a building of any description erected in the place, and the inmates 
of the poor-house, on Federal street, used to go around with their hoes 
digging up the weeds which sprang up in the quiet streets. I supposed that 
the world was finished a little while before I was born, and that nothing 
more would be done to it. 

I remember distinctly the ministers in those days, who never received 
calls from one parish to another, and seemed to me to be very aged men. 

The Rev. Dr. Andrews ministered placidly in the Pleasant street 
church, which was distinguished for having an organ, these instruments 
being considered very questionable innovations by most of the denomi- 
nations. 

Good Dr. Dana administered the gospel in strict conformity with old 
fashioned Calvinism, and I was much impressed by his sermons on account 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 97 

of the holy tones of his voice, though I had no comprehension of the truths 
which he uttered. 

Parson Milton, of the Prospect street church, thundered the gospel in 
such a tremendous voice that, in the summer time when the windows were 
open, all the neighbors had the benefit of his sermons without attending 
church. 

Dr. Morse, of St. Paul's church, could be seen, on Sunday mornings, 
walking from his house to the church, in cassock, gown, bands, and black 
silk gloves, with all the solemnity and dignity that became a man who felt 
that, however it might be with others, he had an undoubted right to dis- 
charge the duties of the ministerial office. 

Mr. Dimick labored faithfully in the church on Brown square with a 
persuasive gentleness and fervor which won the hearts of all. 

I faintly remember hearing old Dr. Spring preach a preparatory lecture 
in the ancient, wooden meeting-house, when I was only three or four 
years old. If he had lived until the present time he would have been some- 
where about one hundred and fifty years of age. 

I distinctly recall the afternoon when the old church was taken down, 
and remember just how the tall spire looked as it gracefully curved through 
the air in its descent to the earth. I was at that time the captain of what 
was known as the Newburyport Junior Artillery, and I drew up my company 
before the building in order that they might have a view of the catastrophe. 

So far as I know, all the members of the company have departed this 
life. Among the last was Edward S. Moseley, so well known to you all as 
one of your most distinguished and useful citizens, and who, if I remember 
right, was lieutenant of the company. 

The ministers of " Giles's meeting-house" (as it was called), which 
stood directly in the rear of my father's garden, but which has since been 
turned to face Harris street, I do not distinctly recollect, as they never 
remained for any length of time. 

Although the commerce of the place had greatly decreased, there were 
always a few vessels engaged in foreign trade, and their arrival home was 
one of the marked events of my childhood. When they came from the West 
Indies, and the molasses barrels were ranged along the wharves, there was 
always a great gathering of the boys, with their long sticks, by means of 
which they were able to extract a small quantity of the contents for their 
own immediate use. 

There was no bridge at that time connecting the town with the opposite 
shore, and the only public conveyance for those who wished to cross the 
river was a small wherry moored at " Ferry wharf," which was rowed over 
at regular intervals, a notice of the departure being announced by a loud 
horn sounded near the market place. 

Among the favorite summer resorts were "The Laurels," where the 
young boys and girls wandered about and gathered flowers, and the "chain 
bridge," near by, from which the launching of vessels could be seen, was a 
great attraction. There was also the "Devil's Den," with its weird tradi- 
tions, and "Devil's Pulpit," from which he was said to preach at midnight; 
and the excavations and subterranean passages, about which strange stories 
were told, were among the fascinating haunts of my childhood. 
13 



98 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

I see that you are to have a military parade on this occasion, and this 
recalls to my mind the Artillery Company as it was eighty years ago, in its 
Continental uniform, which I presume few people now living have ever 
seen ; and the " Washington Light Infantry," with its scarlet uniform and 
crested caps and long red streamers ; and the old, common militia com- 
panies, with officers gorgeously arrayed, while the soldiers were distin- 
guished by ordinary colored knapsacks and something which passed for a 
military cap. 

I wonder if the bells still ring the hours of one o'clock, and nine 
o'clock in the evening; and if the banks and shops are closed from one to 
two o'clock ; and whether there is a town-crier who announces public 
events ; or if on Sunday mornings the banns of marriage are proclaimed by 
the town clerk from his pew ; or whether the Harris street church bell pro- 
claims the opening of the neighboring court with a peculiar twang which we 
children interpreted as " Run, boys, run ; the court's begun." 

I could go on indefinitely with such reminiscences as these, but I must 
not occupy your time. 

I have heard it said that one could go nowhere in the world without 
meeting someone who was connected with Newburyport, and I do not think 
there are many places for which the inhabitants feel a deeper attachment. 

I trust that the richest blessings of heaven may always be bestowed 
upon this venerated place which I have inadvertently spoken of as a town, 
forgetting that it has now risen to the dignity of a city. 

I have written these recollections in as cheerful a tone as I could, but 
it is not to be supposed that I can recall without deep and solemn feeling 
the scenes of the past, and the memories of those whom I once knew as 
living actors in the drama of -life but who are at this hour dwellers in 
another world. 

May I not be allowed, as I address the citizens of the town where I 
preached my first sermon more than seventy years ago, to say one word in 
closing to remind you of the sacred duties which you owe to your Father in 
Heaven, begging you to consecrate yourselves with all your powers and 
faculties to His reasonable service. 

Our days on earth are numbered, but they open on an eternal life. 

Thomas M. Ci.ark, 

Bishop of Rhode Island. 

Newport, R. I., June loth, 1901. 

LETTER FROM WILLIAM C. TODD, ESQ. 

Atkinson, N. H., June 17, 1901. 
Hon. Moses Brown, Mayor : 

My Dear Sir: — I have been prevented by absence from an earlier 
acknowledgment of the invitation as a guest of the city of Newburyport at 
the approaching celebration, an honor which I duly appreciate and for 
which I am grateful, though I cannot be present. 

My acquaintance with Newburyport commenced in 1837, when I made 
a visit there to listen to the Fourth of Jul)^ oration of John Quincy Adams, 
in my boyhood. From 1854 to 1864 an engagement made me a citizen of the 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 99 

city, and since then I have deemed it a privilege to spend more or less time 
every year in your honored old city. 

Coffin's History of Newbury gives an account of what was called the 
" Ipswich Scare." A messenger from Rowley, one Ebenezer Todd, " rushed 
into Mr. Carey's church, bearing all the marks of real alarm in his counte- 
nance, covered with dust, his apparel disordered, and shouting, "Turn out, 
turn out ! For God's sake, turn out, or you will all be killed ! The regulars 
are coming, cutting and slashing all before them ! " The report was easily 
credited, as it was only two days after the Lexington fight, in which many 
from Newbury had been engaged. Though the report was false, it indicated 
the good will of the messenger for Newburyport, and his anxiety to preserve 
the place from destruction. 

My father was born in Rowley and was named Ebenezer Todd, and his 
father had the same name and nativity. Unless there were more, then, of 
the name in Rowley, this Ebenezer Todd, so anxious to save the place, was 
my grandfather. He was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, having twice 
enlisted to serve his country, the second time till the close of the war. 

My long acquaintance with Newburyport, and my sense of its great 
value to the world, have made me as anxious as was my grandfather to 
preserve it, and if I ever learn that evil menaces it, I will hasten, as he did, 
to give warning, that it may be preserved for another half century as pros- 
perous as the past, for which it has my most earnest well wishes. 
Very respectfully yours, 

WiivLiAM C. Todd. 



LETTER FROM P. K. HILLS, ESQ. 

Newburyport, June 12, 1901. 
Hon. E. p. Dodge. 

Dear Sir: — The invitation of the committee of which you are a mem- 
ber to attend and speak at the banquet on the occasion of the commemorative 
exercises in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of 
our city is before me, but the condition of my health does not admit of the 
acceptance of it. 

I may be allowed here to testify to the great benefits which the city 
received by having General Caleb Cushiug as its first mayor. Of course, I 
was associated with him more or less intimately during his brief continu- 
ance in the office, and had ample opportunity to witness the indefatigable 
industry with which he applied himself to everything pertaining to the new 
municipality. He spent a great deal of time at the city hall, and was not 
idle while there. The city seal and motto were his, and in the preparation 
of the necessary ordinances, by-laws, etc., his hand was constantly applied. 
He was very methodical, and his great mind took in the most minute details 
of administration, and it can be thus seen how he impressed himself upon 
all. The first board of aldermen were men of ability and experience in town 
affairs. Taking all these things together, the city had a good start. It has 
been administered since with honesty and ability, free from the scandals 
which have attached themselves to many other cities, and I think upon the 
whole I may be warranted in proposing this sentiment : — 



lOO FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

The city of Newburyport, 1851-1901 ; a city of honest officials, and may 
its future history be thus truthfully characterized, and added thereto pros- 
perity and happiness. 

Cordially thanking your committee for the invitation, and for their 
oral expressions of friendly sentiments, I remain 

Your very obedient servant, 

P. K. Hills, [l. c. h.] 



Mayor Brown then spoke as follows : 

The gentleman upon whom I am about to call is not, strictly 
speaking, a citizen of Newburyport, but he comes to us as early and 
stays with us as late each season as is possible, a sure indication, I 
think, of his kindly disposition toward our people, for whom I beg 
leave at this time to express to him the best of neighborly regard. 

Ladies and gentlemen — the Honoi-able Hai-vey N. Shepard, of 
Boston. 

ADDRESS OF HON. HARVEY N. SHEPARD 

Mr. Mayor .f Ladies and Gentlemen : — At this late hour, and 
after so many have spoken, I shall not presume to intrude upon your 
attention for more than a very few minutes. I have been at a loss to 
conjecture to what I am indebted for my presence upon this occasion, 
not having the honor to be either by birth or residence a citizen of 
Newburyport, and not holding any official position in nation or state. 
But now I understand. I come from an insular possession, and am, 
as it were, if not a citizen, a subject of Newburyport. I am most 
happy in this presence to acknowledge my deep allegiance. For fif- 
teen years I have made here my summer home, and during that fifteen 
years my admiration for Newburyport and its people has grown and 
strengthened. It would be like carrying coals to Newcastle for me 
here to speak of the natural advantages of this city. And yet you will 
pardon me if I ask where you can go on this continent or across the 
ocean and find another street comparable with your own High street 
for its quiet and attractive beauty ; while the poems of VVhittier 
have made known the charms of the Merrimac river wherever the 
English language is read or spoken. 

It is my privilege, this morning, a privilege which I long shall 
remember, to listen with deep interest to the admirable address of the 
distinguished orator, an address of which it can be said, what can be 
said of very few addresses, that it will be as much profit to read it 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT lOI 

hereafter in our homes as it was a pleasure to listen to it in the city 
hall this morning. 

He told us that the greatness of Newburyport is not due to the 
extent of its territory, nor the abundance of its population, nor to its 
overflowing wealth, but to its people — the noblest, the best heritage 
which the past can give to the present. And if I read aright the 
history of this people for two hundred and fifty years, if I know any- 
thing of them today, the same characteristics which were planted here 
by the founders abide in the present — the same energy, the same 
devotion, the same courage. The first ship that was built and 
launched in this heart of the new world was built and sent out upon 
the ocean from here, and I am glad to know that the earliest and the 
most prosperous shipyards of Essex county were found upon the 
island where I live during the summer months. The name of the 
infant republic of the United States was spread widest to the world 
by the merchants and mariners of Newburyport who sailed to the far 
East or circumnavigated the globe. Today it is a commonplace to 
speak of human freedom. It is a little thing to feel that all men are 
free. Can you then conjecture what courage it required to raise here 
the cry against African slavery ; to start here the attempt to remove 
that black spot from the constitution of the United States? There are 
other bright pages in the history of this city ; there are other memor- 
able things in its past; but if they were all blotted out, if this city 
should be swallowed in the waters of the ocean , yet so long as the 
work and life of William Lloyd Garrison are known, so long will 
Newburyport hold its place wherever there is a struggling people or 
wherever there is an aspiration for freedom. 

The banner of our commonwealth is a white banner. So is the 
banner without spot or stain of this city of Newburyport. Fifty years 
of your history are past, fifty new years now have come. What will 
they bring? We know not. And yet I am sure that should the 
occasion arise there will be found in the men and women of today, in 
the children in your homes, the same devotion as in the past, the same 
high courage, the same allegiance to right and duty, to principles, and 
to every aspiration, every effort, every work that makes for civil and 
religious liberty, that makes better men, better women, truer citizens, 
and a nobler and higher city. 

The mayor said : 

Ladies and Gentle?7ien : — I am about to introduce a gentleman 
who may be said to represent, in his past and present life, the bar, the 



I02 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



legislature, the army, and the press; — born in our city, married here, 
and retaining for its people, its places, its traditions a sincere affec- 
tion. I am happy to present him — the Honorable William Reed, of 
Taunton. 



ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM REED 

Mr. Toastmaster and Ladies and Gentlemen: — As I have 
been sitting here it has struck me very forcibly how unevenly honors 
are distributed in this life of ours. You have had an array of able 
and eloquent speakers, men whose fame has extended beyond state 
lines, and yet when it comes down to — well, the rear end of the pro- 
cession, the dissolving view of the banquet, you strike, I think, the 
first genuine son of Newburyport, the first fellow of the whole lot 
born in this city. Now I am not responsible for that, and it happened 
many years ago, and I was so young at the time that I have forgotten 
all about it, but I certainly have atoned for it by holding down one 
of these chairs so long, and I am going to make use of it by saying 
but a few words. 

On an occasion like this it is necessary, you all know, that the 
last speaker shall thresh over the old stories, shall ring the chestnut 
bell; but the bell this time is ringing out the old and ringing in the 
new, and if we do hit a little on the lines our predecessors have 
trodden upon, you will pardon it, for it is your great day, your day of 
jubilee, your day of exultation. 

Now fifty years to those who are climbing the hill of life seems a 
terrible abyss of time, almost immeasurable. To those of us who 
have climbed up the hill and are stepping down upon the other side, 
they are but a brief interval which memory bridges in a moment. It 
seems to me but yesterday since, with other little lads of the grammar 
school, I was mustered into a pageant of all nations, and trudged 
through these streets on a blazing hot Fourth of July day as an 
Asiatic. The glory of that turban and those Turkish trousers has 
never been surpassed by any subsequent attainment. And yet, my 
friends, that was fifty years ago, and Newburyport was just then 
beginning its experiment as a city. Now, when one of us wanderers 
returns to the old homestead after long years of life elsewhere, silence 
is more expressive than the spoken word. The old nook and corner, 
the glimmering river, the breeze laden with the scent of the New 
Hampshire hills, the old buildings which have survived the wrecking 
hand of time, the church spires pointing to the sky, and the panorama 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT IO3 

of hill and vale, all bear to him a message and a greeting which he 
can obtain in no other way. 

The visions of youth are apt to be but flimsy dreams, and are 
dissipated soon by the scorching sun of reality ; but the visions of 
maturer years are those which can be reclad with the full panoply of 
life and made to pass and repass, as the old drama of other days has 
been re-enacted. So we who are descended from those who first 
planted their homes by this gateway of the sea have the right to look 
back and review the struggles of old that went before us. We can do 
it unflinchingly, calmly, fearlessly, because our blood has been cooled 
by the struggle for place and position, our pulses have been slowed 
down by the necessity for performance, and we do not look at the hot 
zenith sun but turn our eyes toward the longer shadows of the after- 
noon. And if we go back over history and think of those who are 
responsible for our being here on this earth, we can see them begin- 
ning here the struggle for existence ; we can see them meeting with 
savage men and beasts, breasting the unwilling sea and gathering in 
its riches, sweeping away the grim forests of the soil, and digging, 
toiling, sweating, freezing, until the village had succeeded the 
wigwam, the broad highway the Indian trail, and the church and 
school-house stood as pointers for that civilization which was to spread 
over the mighty continent and be the keystone of this nation, yet then 
to be, but which was to set the pace of this world. 

But I must be brief. I don't want to go over the old ground that 
has been gone over so often, but I do want to say this: In the beauti- 
ful capitol grounds at Richmond there are groups of statuary which 
show to the observer the contribution of the Old Dominion to the 
framework of this country. Virginia there shows her presidents, her 
warriors, her jurists, and her statesmen, and one feels like standing 
with uncovered head as he recalls those mighty men and the work 
they did, which transcended far beyond state lines and has become an 
inheritance of our common country. As your orator told you in sim- 
ilar words this afternoon, if this little city could place upon her public 
grounds the bronze memorials of those of her citizens who have been 
eminent leaders and commanders in the arts of war and peace, in all 
that makes for wisdom, life, liberty, happiness, the Old Dominion 
would have a worthy rival in the array it would call forth. 

Their graves, my friends, are scattered over this mighty conti- 
nent, or their homes, but their influence — the grandest thing they 
handed down to us — their influence yet lives; — yes, lives in places 
made better by their presence ; lives in volumes which touch upon 
everything that is vital to human interests ; in the law which gives the 



I04 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

largest liberty to a free people ; in the far-reaching justice which 
binds the whole world together in social relations, and is regarded as 
the keystone, in fact, the arch of commercial progress and prosperity. 
On a day like this, at a time like this, it is right, it is more than 
right that we should pay a grateful debt of obligation to those who 
have gone before ; it is proper. And when I say that, don't think 
that I mean to intimate that the hope of this city is sealed and that its 
work has been completed. Far from it. The old spirit which located 
the city in the wilderness, which built up the town by the sea, which 
sent out its materials of peace, of progress, of education, of art, of 
literature wide over the land, and I might say all over the world, yet 
lives and will be equally as potent for the future. For education lives, 
patriotism lives, liberty lives, and ambition still pushes good men and 
women forward to labor and toil for the good, the true, and the 
beautiful. And wherever the old Newburyport spirit stands, wherever 
it lives, — be it here, be it there, — I have always found and you will 
find that its fiber is tough, its loots have a habit of clinging to the 
best and richest soil, and that its sap is clean. It is good stock, and 
its wandering children like myself, who know little of the town save 
as an occasional pilgrim, are glad they come from that kind of Amer- 
icanism, and will always be found ready to support it and maintain it. 

The mayor then introduced Hon. Albert Currier in the following 
words : 

It is with a feeling of singular satisfaction that I am enabled to 
present the senior of our living former mayors. The gentleman to 
whom I allude was chief executive in 1859 and 1S60. 

He had been chairman of the last board of selectmen of the 
town of Newburyport in 1850 and 185 1 ; he was intimately connected 
with the movement which resulted in the city charter. 

Throughout his life he has been identified with the best interests 
of Newburyport, and it is a pleasure to me to speak for all our people 
in recognition of his sterling character, and to introduce him to this 
company. 

Ladies and gentlemen — the Honorable Albert Currier. 

ADDRESS OF HON. ALBERT CURRIER 

Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen: — The older we grow 
the more fondly we cherish our earliest recollections. Others will 
speak of later events in the history of the city. I turn with particular 
pleasure to the days and scenes before we became a city, and if anyone 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT IO5 

asks " What have we to celebrate?" I answer, we celebrate our 
heritage from as good a town as was ever incorporated in the state of 
Massachusetts. We do well to keep its memory alive and to let its 
simple virtue influence us today. 

My recollections of the old town go back to 1826 and '27, when 
the suspension bridge over the Merrimac river was finished, which 
was the first suspension bridge in the United States. It was located 
on the present site of the traveled bridge. The Newburyport bridge 
had four pyramids and five spans. The center span was crowned 
some four feet in order to give better accommodation for the passage 
of boats. This bridge was taken down in 1840, and the railroad 
bridge was built on the same foundations. It was a double bridge, 
the lower floor being for public travel and the railroad overhead. 

Early in the history of Newburyport, five or six distilleries and 
one large brewing establishment were in full blast, the town at that 
time being one of the largest (If not the largest) importers of molasses 
and sugar in New England, and it was not an uncommon thing to 
have the wharves covered with hogsheads of molasses and sugar. 

Three of these wharves were above the present bridge, now 
gone. There were at that time a number of good landings used by 
the public, which were let out by the old town of Newbury and after- 
wards purchased by the town of Newburyport, among which were 
the landing at the foot of Federal street, the market landing at the 
rear of the present police station. Market street, and the Kent sti'eet 
landing, where the water came nearly up to the street. 

In the spring a large number of rafts of wood came down the 
river to supply our citizens with fuel. This was before the Introduc- 
tion of coal. 

There were about one hundred and fifty sail of fishermen and 
many Labrador-men, which today have entirely disappeared. 

Up to 1 861 we had about fifty ships and barks owned here, and 
shipbuilding was extensively carried on. John Currier built ninety- 
seven ships and barks ; Currier & Townsend, Ben Masterson, George 
Currier, and Atkinson & Fillmore, and some others built many fine 
ships. The vessels engaged in the fishing business were built in what 
is now ward one by the Woodwells and others, and it was no uncom- 
mon thing to see many building at one time. This industry has long 
ago departed. 

The second centennial of the town of Newbury occurred in May, 
1835. Services were held In what was called at that time Old Maids' 
Hall, now the site of Oak Hill cemetery, and it was a gala day. The 



Io6 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

towns of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury, which were 
formerly with the old town of Newbury, took part. 

The expenses of the town of Newburyport were $25,000 ; and 
the last year, 1850, the appropriation was $25,000, including $1250 
toward paying the town debt. At the end of the year $3885 was paid 
on that debt. 

In 1S50 the city hall was built. The town appropriated $30,000 
to cover the expense of land and buildings, and it was completed 
within the appropriation. 

Politically my memory goes back to the second term of Andrew 
Jackson, in 1832, when the cry " Hurrah for Jackson ! " was heard on 
all our streets. Then in 1836 came Martin Van Buren, and next came 
the memorable campaign of William Henry Harrison, which was the 
noisiest campaign before or since. "Tip and Tyler" was the watch- 
word, hard cider and log cabins were paraded about the streets, and 
banners of all descriptions, such as " Tippecanoe and Tyler too," " I 
go for Tyler without why or wherefore," were everywhere displayed. 

Newburyport, before the fire of 1811 and the war of 1812, was 
one of the most prosperous places in New England. The population 
was once 7,800, and the valuation was $7,800,000; $1,000 to each 
and every inhabitant. After the great fire the population decreased 
from 7,800 to 6,100 in 1830, and the valuation decreased one-half and 
has never fully recovered from the effects of the fire. 

Other reminiscences of the old town crowd my mind, but I give 
way to other speakers. As I was honored by being a member of the 
last board of selectmen under the town government, and am the oldest 
survivor of the mayors under the city government, I take this occasion 
to express my deep sense of gratitude to my fellow citizens, and to 
wish for my native place a long course of growth and prosperity. 

Mayor Brown said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — As we draw toward the close of these 
exercises, I shall beg leave to present two gentlemen who represent 
the present city council, the presidents respectively of the board of 
aldermen and the common council. 

[Mr. Arthur Withington, the president of the board of aldermen, 
having been obliged to withdraw, Mr. Robert G. Dodge, president of 
the common council, was introduced. He spoke as follows.] 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT IO7 

ADDRESS OF ROBERT G. DODGE, ESQ. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen: — I am certainly too modest to 
detain this fragment of an audience more than a moment. If there 
were time I should have liked to say a word or two about my 
predecessors in the office of common councilman. The list began 
with Colonel Stone, and included P. K. Hills, the late William Gush- 
ing, Mr. Currier, who has done so much to make this celebration a 
success, and His Honor our present mayor. It has been a list among 
which I am sure any man of today would be proud to be enrolled. 

I wanted to say also a word or two about the men who have been 
members of the council in the past, and above all about the interest 
which I myself, in my short experience of public life (if I may so 
term it), have taken. The experience has been to me a very valuable 
one, and it has had an interest for me which I did not by any means 
anticipate. It is a constant source of surprise to me that so few young 
men whom I meet from day to day take any interest in these things. 
One man has no time for it ; another scorns any office so humble as 
that of councilman. It seems to me this is a great mistake. I don't 
mean to say that all our time and interest should be given to the 
affairs of government, but if our people would only realize that the 
actual personal participation in the work of this city government is a 
matter of interest and personal value, I am sure that our successors 
fifty years hence would have something to celebrate perhaps even 
more than we have today. 

And there is just one more word I want to say with regard to this 
matter of the interest which should be taken in the work of the local 
government. We have in the common council, today, one gentleman 
who I am glad to see is still present, who exemplifies in a very high 
degree the proper spirit with which this work should be looked at. I 
don't believe there is a better illustration in the history of the govern- 
ment. I refer to the senior councilman at the present time, the gen- 
tleman of ward 6 who sits before me. Although he has passed the 
age of three score years and ten, although he has received several 
honors at the hands of his fellow citizens, he did not hesitate to accept 
again the humble office of councilman ; and knowing as I do the work 
he has accomplished this year, I want to close my short remarks by 
saying I am sure his reputation as a careful and efficient public ser- 
vant has been only increased thereby. 



io8 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



In conclusion Mayor Brown read the following telegrams, which 
he said had been received while the speaking was taking place : 

Washington, D. C, June 24. 
Hon. Moses Brown, Mayor of Newburyport, Mass. 

Greatly disappointed in not being with my fellow-townsmen today. 
Though absent so much, I shall always be proud to claim Newburyport as 
my home. I send you and my fellow-citizens congratulations and most 
cordial greetings. Edw. A. Moseley. 



Hon. Moses Brown, Mayor. 

All honor to old Newburyport. 
Best wishes. 



Cincinnati, Ohio, June 24. 

I am present in spirit if not in person. 
Paui< a. Pathe. 



The ushers at the banquet were : Fred W. Parsons, head ; Burton 
G. Philbrick, J. Philbrick, Edward M. Coffin, Richard D. Tucker, 
and Ralph T. Hale. 

While the guests were assembling at the armory, the Adelphi 
orchestra, J. K. Nichols, leader, gave the following concert program : 



March, " Hail to the Spirit of Liberty " 

Overture, "Jubel " . 

Waltz, "Artist Life" 

Selection, " Burgomaster " 

Caprice Poetic, " Une Ondee de Sourires " 

March, " Harvard Volunteers" 

Selection, "Lohengrin'' 

Intermezzo, " Naila " 

Hungarian Dances 

Selection, "San Toy" 

Waltz, "Blue Danube" 

March, "The Viceroy" 



Grace 



Sousa 
Weber 
Strauss 
Luders 
Bailey 
Weston Lunt 
Wagner 
Delibes 
Brahms 
Jones 
Strauss 
Herbert 



EXERCISES ON TUESDAY 



THE PARADE 



A more delightful day than Tuesday could not have been pro- 
duced. It seemed as though Providence smiled on the second day of 
Newburyport's fiftieth anniversary. Early in the morning the organ- 
izations that were to participate in the parade, w^hich was the principal 
feature of the day, began to arrive. The naval battalion from the 
battleship Massachusetts came ashore shortly after 7 o'clock. They 
were transported from ship to shore in a large coal barge, towed by 
one of the Merrimac River Towing Company tugs. This organization 
was the first to arrive at their assigned place. The first battalion of 
the Eighth regiment, M. V. M., arrived in good season, and the Grand 
Army was soon in place. The other organizations and features 
marched into place from time to time, and shortly after 10 o'clock the 
parade was started. 

Owing to the perfection with which the plans had been outlined, 
there was no confusion in swinging the different divisions into line. 
After the procession was all in motion it extended at least two miles, 
and the head was nearly back to the starting point before the last part 
of the trades division had begun to move. It was the largest parade 
that Newburyport has seen in recent years, and all that could be heard 
was in the nature of praise of the various features. 

Of course the marines and sailors attracted a great deal of atten- 
tion, and the gallant fellows were frequently applauded as they 
passed. Their marching was excellent, and the people were impressed 
with the fact that the nation's affairs on the sea are in safe hands. 

There was plenty of music. At frequent intervals throughout 



112 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

the parade were brass bands and drum corps, and they were not 
niggardly in their selections. 

The route of march was as follows : Down State, Middle, up 
Fair, through Orange, Milk, down Lime, Purchase, up Bromfield, 
High, down Green, up Washington, down Kent, up Merrimac, Broad, 
High to Forester, countermarch down High, Market, Pleasant, State 
streets to Market square, where the parade was dismissed. 

The procession was made up as follows : 

CHIEF MARSHAL, 

Captain Alexander G. Perkins. 
CHIEF OF STAFF, 

Captain Charles N. Safford. 

AIDS, 

Captain David E. Jewell, Lieutenant Frank Stinson, Lieutenant G. H. Dow, 

Lieutenant Svanberg. 
Edward G. Williams and C. F. Marr, orderlies to the chief marshal. 

CHIEF OF CIVILIAN STAFF, 
Joseph H. A. Currier. 

AIDS, 
Charles H. Webster, Irving K. Wells, Leonard S. Davis, Frank Davis, 
George O. Plumer, S. Albert Wells, Willard A. Hatch, 2d, Wil- 
liam B. O'Beirne, Dr. James C. Kelley, Edward C. 
Johnson, John J. Collins, Watson Redden. 

FIRST DIVISION. 
Major William Stopford, division commander. 
Aids: Major F. L. Junkins, Adjutant Charles M. Mclsaacs. 
Portsmouth Naval Brass Band, 23 men, Ralph Rienwald, leader. 
Battalion of marines and sailors from United States battleship Massachu- 
setts, 250 men, Lieutenant G. R. Salisbury, commanding. 
Pioneer Corps. 
First Company (marines). Captain Harry Lee, Lieutenant 

Monell. 
Second Company (sailors), Lieutenant Lang and Gunner 

Whitehead. 
Third Company (sailors), Lieutenant G. A. Lincoln, Naval 

Cadet Wortman. 
Fourth Company (sailors), Lieutenant C. F. Hughes, Lieu- 
tenant Deligeorges. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 1 13 

First Battalion, Eighth regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, 205 men 

and II officers. 
Company A, Newburyport, 59 men, Ivieutenant E. W. Miller 

and Lieutenant R. L. Shepard commanding. 
Company B, Everett, 60 men, Captain E. L. Sweetser, Lieu- 
tenant C. H. Hillman and Lieutenant George 
A. Kyle commanding. 
Company E, Beverly, 33 men, Captain Augustus P. Gardner 

and Lieutenant C. B. Burnham commanding. 
Company G, Gloucester, 53 men. Captain E.J. Horton, Lieu- 
tenant Kincaird and Lieutenant Hugh 
McDonald commanding. 
Band Sergeant John A. Beane. 
Newburyport Cadet Band, 25 men, J. Nichols, leader. 
A. W. Bartlett Post, No. 49, G. A. R., Newburyport, 60 men, Joseph C. 

Richardson commanding. 
John A. Logan Post, No. 21, G. A. R., Seabrook, N. H., 15 men, Rev. Wil- 
liam A. Rand commanding. 
Charles Sumner Post, No. loi, G. A. R., Groveland, 20 men, Isaac Day com- 
manding. 
E. P. Wallace Post, No. 122, G. A. R., Amesbury, 30 men, D. E. Getchell 

commanding. 

Rowley Brass Band, 24 men, E. B. Hale, leader. 

General Appleton Post, No. 128, G. A. R., Ipswich, 40 men, C. W. Bamford 

commanding. 
John P. Balch Garrison, No. 194, R. & V. & N. U., Sergeant John Connell 
commanding, and guests, Terrance McDonald Garrison, of Ames- 
bury, 30 men in all, the whole under command of 
Captain C. T. Stephens. 
Carriages containing disabled members of the Grand Army. 

Carriages containing guests of the city. First carriage. Mayor Brown, Pres- 
ident Withington, President Dodge, Senator Butler. 
Second carriage. Mayor Hurley of Salem, Mayor Leonard of Lawrence, 

Mayor Shepard of Lynn, ex -Alderman James F. Carens. 

Third carriage. Representative Moody Kimball, Clerk Kimball of house of 

representatives, Mayor Maciutire of Portsmouth, Alderman 

Cheney of Haverhill. 

Fourth carriage. County Commissioner Bishop, Captain Edmund Bartlet, 

Selectman C. W. Ordway of West Newbury, Selectman Richard 

T. Noyes of Newbury. 

Fifth carriage, T. P. Linehan of Concord, N. H., George P. Sargent, George 

A. Schofield of Ipswich, Hon. W. A. Johnson. 

Sixth carriage, Hon. George H. Plumer, Hon. J. Otis Winkley, James V. 

Felker, Henry W. Little. 

15 



114 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

SECOND DIVISION. 

Ancient Order of Hibernians, Jere Dineen commanding. 

Aids : Rev. A. J. Teeling, county chaplain ; Rev. W. H. Ryan, chaplain of 

Division 9; Patrick P. Sullivan, Cornelius F. Creeden, J. J. 

Rourke, J. J. Quill, Andrew J. Casey, Timothy 

Dineen, B. Wm. Barrett, F. J. Donahoe. 

Metropolitan Brass Band, of Haverhill, 20 men, F. E. Bolan, leader. 

Shields Division, No. 9, A. O. H., Newburyport, 75 men, John J. O'Brien 

commanding. 

National Drum Corps, Haverhill, 12 men, Patrick Clochecy, leader. 

Division 14, A. O. H., Haverhill, 50 men, H. F. McKenna commanding. 

Division 3, A. O. H., Amesbury, 25 men, Michael J. Burke commanding. 

Parochial School Cadets, Newburyport, 35 boys, Sergeant John J. Kelley 

commanding. 
Carriage containing James A. Ryan, of Boston, state president of A. O. H.; 
Rev. J. B. Labossiere; Rev. J. J. Flood ; Jere Healey, ex- 
president of board of aldermen. 
Carriage containing Rev. Mortimer E. Twomey of Maiden, Rev. Michael F. 
Coffey of Cambridge, Rev. William J. Casey of Maiden. 



THIRD DIVIvSION. 

Fire Department, Chief S. C. Reed commanding. 

Newburyport National Band, 28 men, W. B. Knight, leader. 

Board of Engineers : Chief Engineer Reed, Assistant Engineers John P. 

Atkinson, John D. Lewis, John F. Cutter. First Assistant 

Engineer Clarence T. Merrill of Amesbury. 

Chief's wagon, John Davis, driver. In this wagon rode Fred A. Reed, son 

of Newburj'port's chief engineer. 

Ladder i Company, Captain E. C. Reade commanding. 

Ladder i, drawn by three horses abreast, Dennis Finnegan, driver. 

Engine i Company, Captain William H. Chase commanding. 

Engine i, four horses, Maurice D. Broderick, driver. 

Hose I, two horses, Albert E. Bray, driver. 

Engine 2 Company, Captain Thomas W. Colman commanding. 

Engine 2, four horses, Dennis Lucy, driver. 

Hose 2, two horses, Frank Annis, driver. 

Kearsarge Flute and Drum Corps, 12 men, William T. Belton, Leader. 

Engine 3 Company, Captain Samuel T. Chase commanding, and guests. 

Hose I Company of Amesbury, Captain Edward Lake commanding. 

Engine 3, two horses, Dennis Hale, driver. 

Hose 3, one horse, George W. Carter, driver. 



CITV CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT II5 

Hose I, Amesbury, two horses, Napoleon L,arque, driver. 

Hose 7 Company, Captain Joel L. Lancey, commanding. 

Hose 7, one horse, John Moynihan, driver. 

Hose 8 Company, Captain William B. Porter commanding. 

Hose 8, one horse, Charles A. Wetherell, driver. 

Supply wagon, John J. Lynch, driver. 

Newburyport Drum and Piccolo Band, 11 men, John C. Dickie, leader. 

Newburyport Veteran Firemen's Association, 50 men. Vice President W. W. 

Hutchins commanding; G. F.Wilson, first lieutenant; B. H. 

Batchelder, second lieutenant. 

"Tiger" Machine, John Hale, driver. 

Miniature Hose Wagon, called the Ring's island fire department, R. Kendall 

Cheney, hoseman, and Raymond Parsons, driver. The wagon, which 

was fitted up with hose, lanterns, axes, etc., was drawn by 

Hoseman Chene3''s father and an elder brother. 

Haverhill City Baud, 23 pieces, Thomas M. Carter, leader and director. 

Neptune Veteran Firemen's Association, 90 men, Edward W. Tilton com- 
manding; Albion P. Hilton, first lieutenant; Albert F. 
Young, second lieutenant. 

FOURTH DIVISION. 

Lawrence L. Peavey, commander. 

Aids : William Jaques and Stephen Hale of Newbury, George Reed and 

Frank Hoyt of Newburyport. 

A. H. Beckford, officer of the day. 

Amesbury P'ife and Drum Corps. 

General Brickett Commandery, Loyal Legion, of Haverhill, Captain Baker 

in command. 

General A. E. DeRoche, Colonel W. R. Rich, Adjutant George Beau, First 

Assistant J. H. Williams, Second Assistant A. E. Smith. 

John Sumner Council, No. 28, Order United American Mechanics, of New- 
buryport, 30 men, James H. Johnson, councilor. 
Groveland Drum Corps. 
Housatonic Council, O. U. A. M., of Rowley, 25 men, Frank F. Foster in 

command. 

Salem Brass Band. 

Samuel Tucker Council, No. 20, O. U. A. M., of Marblehead, 30 men, Charles 

Symoud in command. 

Governor Weare Council, No. 15, O. U. A. M., of Seabrook, N. H., 20 men, 

Walter Knowles commanding. 

Washington Council, No. 29, O. U. A. M., of Haverhill. 



Il6 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Carriage containing Senior State Councilor Charles F. Spear, of Hyde Park 
Junior State Councilor Parker H. Nason, of West Newbury ; ex-State 
Councilor Joseph W. Coates, of Marblehead ; State Council Sec- 
retary Tuttle ; Thomas E. Dougherty and F. A. Dodge, 
Beverly, state council finance committee, O. U. A. 
M.; A. S. Haynes, Haverhill, state vice coun- 
cilor, Junior Order. 
Success Council, Jr. O. U. A. M., of Byfield. 
Indian Hill Council, Jr. O. U. A. M., of West Newbury. 
Enterprise Council, Jr. O. U. A. M., of Haverhill. 
Passaconway Council, Jr. O. U. A. M., of Seabrook. 
Team containing members of Essex Council, Royal Arcanum. 
Barge containing Marine Society, founded in 1772. 



FIFTH DIVISION. 

Parochial school, one barge. 

Hancock street school, three barges. 

Bromfield street school, three barges. 

Purchase street school, one barge. 

Jackman school, three barges. 

Johnson school, one barge. 

Plains school, one barge. 

Temple street school, one barge. 

Kelley school, eight barges. 

Currier school, three barges. 

Curtis school, three barges. 

Moultonville school, one barge. 

Congress street school, four barges. 



TRADES DIVISION. 

William G. Fisher, commander. 
Aids : Hugh Hart, Jr., John J. Connors, H. A. Young, Dr. E. E. Linton. 

Perkins Lumber Company, float house built of various kinds of moulding 

with boxes for chimneys. 

Inn street laundry, delivery wagon. 

Herman Staples, pyramid of paint cans on delivery wagon. 

N. Varina, coal team. 

John Collins, coal team. 

News Publishing Company, a team load of paper in rolls. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT II7 

Hale's parcel delivery wagon. 

H. C. Hewitt, butter, eggs, and Maine cream, two teams. 

Moses Rolfe, hay and grain delivery team. 

Wolfe tavern, pony cart. 

E. S. Hidden, baker's delivery wagon. 

J. N. Frost, six-horse ice team. 

L. M. Hatch & Sons, four-horse team loaded with shingles. 

Creeden Brothers, team loaded with steam heating apparatus. 

McGlew Brothers, float representing a blacksmith shop, with forge and 

anvil and men at work. 

W. G. Fisher, float representing Liberty and the Army and Navy. 

Hope Spice Mills, two teams. 

George M. Roaf, five meat delivery teams. 

Newburyport Footwear Agency, two teams. 

J. F. Brown, grocery team. 

R. S. Tibbetts, baker's team. 

Newburyport Furniture Company, float with boy in bed. 

H. M. Ordway, extract team. 

H. H. Tingley, shoe blacking delivery wagon. 

W. J.Jordan, big hat wagon. 

Iv. F. Barton, fancy wagon. 

Yerxa & Co., two grocery teams. 

C. H. Lord, carriage maker, four styles of carriages. 

City Grist Mills, delivery team. 

Osgood & Goodwin, float representing summer scene. 

Green Davis, team loaded with wall paper. 

F. H. Hubbard, clothing. 

D. Collins, calf in a cage, representing "box-calf" idea. 

A. J. Brooks, two carpenter teams. 

George H. Plumer, tally-ho and delivery team. 

S. S. Beloff, Amesbury, tobacconist, wagon. 

A. W. Parsons, grocery wagon. 

E. W. Pearson, florist wagon loaded with plants. 

National Biscuit Company, three teams. 

J. B. Thomas, two meat teams. 

R. J. Foley, team loaded with ranges and heaters. 

W. W. Coffin, float advertising shoes. 

Pearl S. Bradford, float representing toilet, laundry, and bath plumbing 

and kitchen heaters. 
W. C. Greeley, provision team. 



Il8 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

W. C. Laugley, two loaded furniture teams. 

Thomas Noyes & Sou, Moxie team. 

D. J. Kelleher, baker's team. 

J. H. Balch, Jr., carriage, coal team, aud outrider with banner. 

George J. Johnson, Rowley express wagon. 

P. B. Jackson, team in which an upholsterer was at work. 

J. G. Muldoon, kitchen range loaded on delivery wagon. 

Porter, Rogers & Co., carriage. 

J. J. Comley, floral chariot driven by young lady, aud an outrider. 

Jere Healey, coal team, 

William Gray, two baker's teams. 

T. Glynn & Co., man bottling soda in delivery wagon. 

American Express Company, three loaded express wagons. 

G. A. Rowe, butter and eggs team. 

S. P. Bray, three coal and wood teams. 

S. J. Hughes, grocery team. 

William Little, milk wagon. 

Manhattan Clothing Company, horseman with banner. 

Pentucket Cycle Company, float, a racer paced by a triplet. 



After the pai-ade had been reviewed and dismissed the naval con- 
tingent and militia were escorted to Armory hall, where an excellent 
dinner was provided by Caterer Tihbetts. The O. U. A. M. councils 
were entertained by John Sumner council, No. 28, in a hospitable 
manner, G. H. Plumer being the caterer. The visiting Hibernians 
were taken care of by Shields division. 

The fifth division of the parade was the school division. All the 
barges in which there were school children were trimmed with 
bunting and flags of the nation. All the barges were full of children 
who were proud of their schools, for thev were shouting school yells 
all along the course, and ended at the end of the procession with the 
singing of "Columbia." 

The battalion from the battleship Massachusetts had with them in 
the parade the ship's mascot, a goat, wearing a blanket on which 
appeared the name "William Terror." The goat bucked at one time 
on High street, and one of the sailors had a tussle with him. It was 
evident that the mascot was weary, and the ambulance corps was 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 1 19 

called into service and the goat carried the remainder of the distance 
on a stretcher. 

Company B, Eighth regiment, of Everett, turned out with every 
officer and man. The company had with it a mascot in the shape of 
a large dog, led by a lad dressed in khaki uniform. 

Captain William H. Blodgett, of Salisbury, made a great hit in 
the parade. He rode in a high chaise of "ye olden time" pattern, 
drawn by a high stepping horse. He was attired in full continental 
uniform. 

Without doubt the youngest participant in the parade was the 
two-year-old daughter of Mr. L. L. Peavey, commander of the O. U. 
A. M. division. The little one was carried in the arms of her father 
as he rode at the head of his men and attracted much notice. 



ATHLETIC SPORTS. 



Owing to the length of the parade and the time consumed by it, 
the athletic meet at the driving park was not begun until a little after 
3 o'clock. There was a large crowd there at the appointed time, but 
a still larger crowd came on the 3 o'clock cars, which justified the 
committee in waiting. 

The meet itself was intensely interesting, and some very fast time 
was made. Stanley Besse, secretary of the athletic committee, secured 
a large number of entries, but several of them did not compete. 

The first event was the 100-yard dash, in which there were three 
heats, there being seven in each heat. There were several Newbury- 
port boys entered. In the first heat, J. J. Healey, who had a handi- 
cap of six feet, won out, with "Jake Smith," a scratch man, a close 
second. Ten seconds is fast, but that was the time. In the second 
heat Frank Lasley was an easy winner, and Pope managed to come 
in second. Frank Hubbard, of Concord High School, captured first 
in the next heat ; Ralph Plumer, of this city, was in this heat, but 
came in third. In the semi-finals Smith got a good lead and finished 
yards ahead of the next man. J. J. Healey, Frank Lasley, "Jake" 
Smith, of this city; Hubbard, of C. H. S. ; and Lynch, of Cambridge- 
port, were in the finals. Healey won out in a pretty race. Smith 
coming in third, just behind Lasley. 

The high hurdles came next, and these were run in two heats. 
R. G. Leavitt and J. C. Preston, of Phillips Exeter, finished first and 
second in this heat, Harris, of Haverhill, dropping out. Pope finished 
first in the second heat easily. 

In the mile, Sullivan put up a fine race throughout. He was the 

16 



122 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

only one starting first. Just three yards before the finish he dropped, 
and Dowd, an old E. I. A. A. man, finished third in his place. 
Dixon, the winner, led from the first. 

Healey ran the finest 220-yard run seen in a long time, having 
only two feet handicap, and winning in 22 seconds. 

Dick Grant was warmly applauded at the conclusion of the mile 
run. He started scratch man with Sullivan, of Cambridgeporf, and 
gradually crept up until the last quarter of a mile. Then he made a 
wide margin between himself and the others. There were only three 
men who finished, the others having dropped out on account of 
the pace. 

The 100-yard dash, — First heat won by J. J. Healey, Dummer Academy ; 
H. E. Smith, Phillips Exeter, second ; time, 10 seconds. Second heat won 
by Frank Lasley, Newburyport, Robert A. Pope, of Newburyport, second ; 
John M. Burke, Holy Cross, third ; Time, 10I.5 seconds. Third heat won by 
Frank Hubbard, Concord High School ; W. J. Lynch, of Cambridgeport 
Gymnasium, second ; T. McQueeney, of St. Anne's Worcester, third ; time, 
10% seconds. Heat for second man won by H. E. Smith, Phillips Exeter ; 
W. J. Lynch, of Cambridgeport, second; time, loVs seconds. Final heat 
won by J. J. Healey, Dummer Academy ; Frank A. Lasley, of Newburyport, 
second ; H. E. Smith, of Phillips Exeter, third ; time, 10 seconds. 

The 220-yard dash was won by J. J. Healey, of Newburyport ; H. F. 
Ellis, of Everett High School, second ; John M. Burke, Holy Cross, third; 
time 22 seconds. 

The 440-yard dash was won by H. E. Smith, Phillips Exeter; John M. 
Burke, Holy Cross, second ; T. Kennedy, of St. Alphonsus Athletic Associa- 
tion, third ; time, 49% seconds. 

The 880-yard run was won by R. W. Dixon, Worcester High School ; 
J. M. Cates, Phillips Andover, second; James A. Dowd, Lawrence, third; 
time, 2 minutes, 22/5 seconds. 

Mile run, won by Dick Grant, of Cambridgeport ; F. J. A. Colman, St. 
Alphonsus Athletic Association, second ; H. F. Peasley, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, third ; time, 4 minutes, 38% seconds. 

The 120-yard high hurdles, — First heat won by R. F. Leavitt, Phillips 
Exeter; J. C. Preston, Phillips Exeter, second ; time, 17% seconds. Second 
heat won by Robert A. Pope, Newbur3^port ; T. McQueeney, St. Anne's 
Worcester, second ; time, 17% seconds. Final heat won by R. G. Leavitt ; 
Robert A. Pope, second ; J. C. Preston, third ; time, 16% seconds. 

Running high jump, won by L. P. McGovern, Lynn Y. M. C. A., 5 feet, 
8% inches; H. E. Smith, Phillips Exeter, second, 5 feet, 8% inches; Robert 
A. Pope, third, 5 feet, 7% inches. 

Pole vault, won by Preston, Phillips Exeter; McGovern, second ; Acker- 
man, third ; hight, 10 feet, 9 inches. 



THE FIREWORKS. 



The fireworks at the mall attracted a great crowd of people, 
estimates placing the number from fifteen to twenty thousand. The 
display was very satisfactory, the pyrotechnics being of excellent 
quality and of varied nature. The water of Frog pond acted as a 
mirror, reflecting the brightness of the exhibits as they were let oflf. 
The set pieces included portraits of the first mayor, Hon. Caleb 
Gushing, and of the present mayor, Hon. Moses Brown ; a bouquet 
of flowers ; an elephant that walked along the edge of the pond ; a 
motto, "Our Fiftieth Anniversary, 1851-1901"; a fan; and the 
motto, " Good Night." The display was fired by two men employed 
by the firm that furnished the fireworks. Things were kept on the 
move, rockets, bombs, and colored lights being almost continuously 
in the air. Mr. Irvin Besse was chairman of the committee on fire- 
works, and with his associates is entitled to much credit for the 
admirable exhibition presented. 



EXERCISES ON WEDNESDAY 



VETERAN FIREMEN'S PARADE. 



The parade of the Veteran Firemen, Wednesday morning, was a 
great success, and the streets through which it passed were lined with 
spectators, while in the center of the city it was viewed by a great 
multitude. 

There were about fifteen hundred men in line, and they made a 
fine appearance and were applauded all along the line. 

The local active fire department acted as escort, marching in a 
body, and made a fine showing. 

The line formed as follows : 

Platoon of police, Captain Patrick Creeden and six patrolmen. 
Chief Marshal, W. B. Porter. 
Aids: Captain C. N. Safford and D. A. Casey. 
Active fire department, 75 men, Chief S. C. Reed, commander. 
First carriage : Mayor Brown ; Mayor Shepard, of Lynn ; Irvin Besse, chair- 
man firemen's muster committee. 
Second carriage : Ex-Chief Eben S. Dole, Chief W. J. Bishop of Amesbury, 
ex-Chief C. H. Hooper of Peabody, James Dugan of Haverhill. 

Third carriage: A. S. Harriman of Arlington, C. H. Grant of Somerville, 
Chief W. E. Cade of Wakefield, F. A. Cheney of Haverhill. 

Beckman's Clarinet Band. 

Neptune Veterans, 100 men, Albert Russell commanding. 

City of Lynn, 50 men, N. W. Petts commanding. 

Eighth Regiment Drum Corps. 

Lawrence Veterans, 60 men, Colonel Melvin Beale commanding. 

Rings Island Drum Corps. 

Tigers, of Newburyport, 60 men, George F. Wilson commanding. 

Washingtons, of Georgetown, 50 men, Alvin F. Marden commanding. 

Eurekas, Arlington, 80 men, A. A. Tilden commanding. 



128 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Amesbury Drum Corps. 

Protectors, of Amesbury, 65 men, Henry True commanding. 

Georgetown Drum Corps. 

Erie, of Georgetown, 50 men, E. S. Brown commanding. 

Nonantums, of Newton, 50 men, John Hardigan commanding. 

White Angel Drum Corps. 

White Angel, of Salem, 100 men, John Pollock commanding. 

City of Somerville, 60 men, E. P. Walker commanding. 

Fifth Regiment Drum Corps. 

General Taylor, of Everett, 40 men, G. A. Judd commanding. 

Winnisimmet, of Chelsea, 40 men, P. W. Dolif commanding. 

General Butler Drum Corps. 

City of Lowell, 65 men, J. H. Currier commanding. 

Eagles, of Lynn, 65 men, O. A. Dodge commanding. 

Red Jackets, of Cambridge, 40 men, W. A. McLean commanding. 

Fountain, of Exeter, 60 men, William Flanuigan commanding. 



THE FIREMEN'S MUSTER 



Newburyport's highly successful celebration came to a close on 
Wednesday afternoon, when the seventeen veteran firemen associa- 
tions that had participated in the morning parade had a play-out on 
Pond street. 

Thousands of people gathered to witness this always interesting 
contest of men and machines. The red shirted men were just as 
enthusiastic as in the days when " they ran with the machine," and 
each company had warm supporters. 

The weather conditions were favorable, the extreme heat being 
the only serious drawback. A slight cross wind manifested itself at 
times, interfering with the work of some of the machines. As a 
whole, however, the weather was all that could be asked for. 

Owing to a slight hitch in the arrangements the playing did not 
begin until 2 o'clock. The Neptunes were the first to play, and they 
sent the water down the board in good shape, and on the third play, 
which was the best, attained a distance of 199 feet, 11^ inches. The 
next machine to play was the City of Lynn, and she secured 195 feet, 
2 inches. The Tigers played fourth. The machine was well manned, 
but she sent the water down the platform only 182 feet, 9^ inches. 

The Nonantums, of Newton, followed the Tigers, and played 
202 feet, 6^^ inches, which proved to be the best stream of the after- 
noon. The Amesbury men made a fine showing with their new 
engine, getting a mark of 190 feet, 9^ inches. They would have 
done better still had not one of the plugs of the engine been blown off. 
This was the first muster in which this engine has appeared since she 
has been in possession of the Amesbury company. 

The Fountains, of Exeter, who won the first prize at the muster 
in connection with the fair in this city in 1900, was the last machine 



I30 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



to play. She sent water down the paper 197 feet, 7^ inches, on the 
first play, and fresh interest was created as it was thought that the best 
plays were to be excelled. Such did not prove the case, however, for 
she failed to better her first stream. The play-out was completed 
shortly after 6 o'clock, and the various companies departed for their 
homes. 

As a result of the playing the Nonantums, of Newton, won the 
first prize, $200; they also got the special prize, $25, offered to the 
company coming the longest distance. The Neptunes, of Newbury- 
port, got the second prize, $100 ; the Fountains, of Exeter, the third 
prize, $75 ; and the City of Lynn, the fourth, $25. 

The judges held a meeting after the playing and corrected the 
scores. The prizes were at once paid over to the winners. 

The committee in charge of the arrangements for the muster was 
made up of Irvin Besse, chairman ; John W. Sargent, S. C. Reed, 
W. B. Porter, and Charles W. Genu. The following were oflicials 
at the contest: Judges, — at stream, Fred A. Cheney of Haverhill, 
Captain Charles Grant of Somerville ; at pipe. Captain Charles H. 
Hooper of Peabody, Eben S. Dole of Salisbury ; at engine. Chief 
Bishop of Amesbury, Chief Wade of Wakefield. In charge at muster, 
Chief S. C. Reed. Timekeeper, C. A. Putnam. 

The records were made as follows : 



Nonantums, Newton 
Neptune, Newburyport 
Fountain, Exeter 
City of Lynn, Lynn 
Eureka, Arlington 
Protection, Amesbury 
White Angel, Salem 
General Butler, Lowell 
Red Jackets, Cambridge 
General Taylor, Everett 
Tigers, Newburyport 
City of Somerville 
Eagles, Lynn 
Lawrence Vets, Lawrence 
Washingtons, Georgetow 
Eries, Georgetown 
Winnesimniet, Chelsea 



FEET. 


INCHES 


202 


6X 


199 


11^ 


197 


1% 


195 


2 


193 


8^ 


190 


<iYAr 


187 


A'A 


186 


\y% 


184 


iiX 


184 


4 


182 


9,'^ 


181 


11/^4: 


178 


4 


177 


h% 


166 


I 


158 


oY^ 


143 


6X 



TESTIMONIAL TO BATTLESHIP. 



As an indication of the cordiality between the citizens of New- 
buryport and the ofHcers of the battleship Massachusetts, a pleasant 
incident occurred when a sterling silver three-light candelabra, with 
two candlesticks to match, were presented to the battleship through 
its officers. 

The candelabra is of the latest style of decorative art, designed by 
George P. Tilton, the artistic engraver of the Towle Manufacturing 
Company. It is beautiful in pattern and workmanship, and represents 
three lilies, each bearing a candle, with choice surroundings. 

The candelabra is engraved as follows : 

Citizens of Newburyport 
TO BattivEShip Massachusetts 

THROUGH its OFFICERS. 



APPENDIX 



LETTERS FROM INVITED GUESTS 



The following letters with regard to the visit of the battleship 
Massachusetts on two days of the celebration, and replies of invited 
guests other than those read at the banquet, are published for preserv- 
ation and to complete the account of the fiftieth anniversary of the 
city of Newburyport. 



March 12, 1901. 
Hon. Wm. H. Moody. 

Sir, — The receipt is acknowledged of your letter of March 9, 1901, 
requesting the presence of battleships or other large vessels off Newburyport, 
Massachusetts, on June 24th and 25th next, upon the occasion of the celebra- 
tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city. 

The department has taken pleasure in issuing orders in conformity 
with your request, and encloses for your information a copy of a letter sent 
to the commander-in-chief, U. S. naval force. North Atlantic station. 
Very respectfully, 

[signed] John D. I^ong, Secretary. 



Commander-in-Chief March 12, 1901. 

U. S. Naval Force, 

North Atlantic Station. 
Sir, — Arrange to have one or more vessels, and if practicable all of the 
North Atlantic squadron, off Newburyport, Massachusetts on June 24th and 
25th next, on the occasion of the celebration commemorating the fiftieth 
anniversary of the incorporation of the city. 

Communicate in regard to this matter with the Hon. W. H. Moody and 
with the mayor of Newburyport. 

Very respectfully, 
[signed] John D. IvOng, Secretary. 



136 fiftieth anniversary of the 

House of Representatives U. S. 
Washington, D. C, 
Henry W. Little, Esq., March 13, 1901. 

Newburyport, Mass. 
My Dear Sir, — I enclose copies of letters in regard to the movements 
of the North Atlantic squadron in June, which are self-explanatory. I would 
suggest that it would be a graceful act to acknowledge, in the name of the 
city of Newburyport, to Secretary Long direct, the favor of his prompt action 
in this matter. 

Yours very truly, 

Fred L. Fishback, 
Private Secretary to Hon. W. H. Moody. 



Navy Department, Washington. 

April 17, 1901. 
Hon. Moses Brown, 

Mayor, City of Newburyport, Mass. 
Sir, — The receipt is acknowledged of your letter of April 15, 1901. 
The department will heartily approve the landing of such part as practica- 
ble of the battalions of the vessels of the North Atlantic squadron which 
will be at Newburyport on June 24th and 25th. Final arrangements for the 
landing of this force will necessarily be in the hands of the commander-in- 
chief. You are advised to communicate with him directly upon the subject, 
furnishing him, if you deem it proper, with a copy of this letter. 

Rear Admiral Farquhar will be at Ft. Monroe about the 24th, instant. 
Very respectfully, 

John D. Long, Secretary. 



United States Flagship Kearsarge. 
Navy Yard, New York, N. Y. 

May 4, 1901. 
Hon. Moses Brown, 

Mayor, City of Newburyport, Massachusetts. 
Sir, — Replying to your communication of the 22d, ultimo, addressed 
to Rear Admiral N. H. Farquhar, I am directed by Rear Admiral F. J. Hig- 
ginson, now commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic squadron, to inform 
you that owing to the exigencies of the service it is not possible at present 
to give any definite information regarding the number of vessels which will 
be present at Newburyport June 24th and 25th, nor of the composition of 
the landing force to take part in the parade of the 25th, but that the desired 
information will be furnished you as soon as practicable. 
Very respectfully, 

W. A. Marshall, 
Lieutenant-Commander, U. S. Navy, Aide. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 137 

U. S. S. Massachusetts, 
Navy Yard, New York, 
May 27, 1901. 
Sir, — I am directed by the commander-in-chief, U. S. naval force, 
North Atlantic station, to communicate with you in regard to the landing of 
the battalion at Newburyport in order to participate in the parade on June 
25, 1901. 

Referring to the inquiries contained in your letter of April 22 to the 
former commander-in-chief, Rear Admiral Farquhar, I would say that, 
weather permitting, the battalion of the "Massachusetts" will be landed. 
The approximate number of men is 248 and 8 officers. 

Owing to the draught of the ship she will not be able to lie nearer than 
three and one-half miles off the city, probably in eight to ten fathoms of 
water outside the whistling buoy. 

It is customary in making such landings for the city to provide a tug. 
The boats of the ship will land the battalion in case of necessity, but in an 
open roadstead it is desirable not to employ them because of liability to 
damage. 

According to my understanding, the "Massachusetts" is the only 
vessel of the squadron that may be present off Newburyport on the occasion 
referred to. 

Very respectfully, 

H. N. Manney, 

Captain, U. S. Navy, commanding. 



COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, U. S. S. MASSACHUSETTS. 

Captain H. N. Manney, United States Navy 

Lieutenant-Commander A. C. Baker, " " " 

Lieutenant-Commander R. C. Smith, ** " " 

Lieutenant G. R. Salisbury, " " " 

Lieutenant C. W. Dyson, " " " 

Lieutenant C. F. Hughes, " " " 

Lieutenant D. M. Garrison, " " " 

Lieutenant F. D. Karns, " " " 

Ensign G. S. L1NC01.N, " " " 

Ensign L. Shane, " " " 

Ensign C. E. DeIvIGEORGES, Royal Greek Navy 

Naval Cadet W. K. WorTman, United States Navy 

Surgeon H. E. Ames, " " " 

Assistant Surgeon B. L. Wright, " " "' 

Paymaster W. J. L1TTEI.I, " " " 

Captain Marines H. LEE, ** " " 

First Lieutenant Marines J. S. Turrii,!,, " " " 

Chaplain C. Q. Wright, " 



138 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



FROM DAVID L. WITHINGTON, ESQ. 

San Diego, California, 
Hon. E. p. Dodge, June 17, 1901. 

Chairman, Newburyport, Mass. 
Dear Sir, — I gratefully acknowledge the invitation of your committee 
to speak at the commemorative exercises to be held on the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the incorporation of the city of Newburyport, within whose confines 
I lived for seventeen years, whose welfare and hopes I made my own with 
an enthusiasm which is not yet exhausted, and of whose record I am 
sincerely proud. Her sons who live upon the Pacific, although separated 
by a continent, are yet bound by common ties which neither distance nor 
time can sunder. Absent in body, they will rejoice with you upon this 
home-coming day. I hoped to have been with you on the occasion, but 
duties here have decreed otherwise, and I can but send our congratulations 
upon this happy occasion. 

Sincerely yours, 

David L. Withington. 



from senator gardner. 

Commonweai^th of Massachusetts. 
Senate Chamber, Boston, 
Messrs. E. P. Dodge, J. J. Currier, June 3, 1901. 

and Nathan N. Withington, 
Newburyport, Mass. 
Gefitle7nen, — I have the honor to accept with pleasure the invitation of 
your committee to be present and make a short address at the banquet at 
Newburyport, on June 24, 1901. 

Very respectfully, 

Augustus P. Gardner. 



FROM senator LODGE. 

United States Senate. 
June 6, 1901. 
E. P. Dodge, Esq., John J. Currier, Esq., and 
Nathan N. Withington, Esq. 
My Dear Sirs, — I am very much obliged to you by your kind invitation 
to be present at the commemorative exercises to be held in Newburyport on 
the 24th and 25th of June, and to deliver a short address. I should like it 
very much indeed if I could accept, but I am sorry to say I have already 
accepted an invitation for the days you mention, and this makes it impossi- 
ble for me to be present. 

With renewed thanks for your kindness, believe me 
Very truly yours, 

H. C. Lodge. 



city charter of newburyport 1 39 

from the governor of maine. 

State of Maine, Executive Department. 
Augusta, June i, 1901. 

Messrs. E. P. Dodge, John J. Currier, Nathan N. Withington, 
Newburyport, Massachusetts. 
Gentlemen, — I have your letter of the 28th, ultimo, inviting me to 
attend the exercises at the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the city 
government of Newburyport, for which I thank you. 

I regret that a previous engagement will prevent me from being present. 
I have the most pleasant memories of Newburyport, a city in which I have 
always had the deepest interest. I trust that everything in connection with 
the coming anniversary will be most successful, and that your city may 
have a prosperous future. 

Very truly yours, 

John F. Hii^l, 

Governor of Maine. 



from hon. edgar r. champlin. 

Boston, Mass. 
Mr. E. p. Dodge, June 5, 1901. 

Newburyport, Mass. 
My Dear Sir, — I trust you will pardon my delay in answering the 
esteemed favor addressed to me under date of May 31st, and signed by you, 
Mr. John J. Currier, and Mr. Nathan N. Withington, inviting me to be 
present at the exercises in Newburyport upon the 24th, instant. I have 
been delaying in the hope that I might see my way clear to definitely accept 
your very kind invitation, but it looks now as though my time would be so 
fully occupied that I shall not be able to accept your courtesy upon that 
occasion. If you must know definitely at once, I shall be obliged to say 
that I cannot come ; if, however, the matter may remain open for a week or 
ten days, I may be able to see my way clear to be with you. I assume how- 
ever that you want to print your program, and that you ought to know at 
once your final plan, and so feel that my only safe course is to advise you 
that I cannot be with you. 

Wishing you a most enjoyable occasion, I am 

Yours very truly, Edgar R. Champlin. 



Boston, Mass., June 22, 1901. 
Mr. E. p. Dodge, 

Chairman Literary Committee, Newburyport, Mass. 
My Dear Mr. Dodge, — It is with disappointment that I am constrained 
to finally decline to be present at the celebration. Next week will be 
crowded full of imperative business engagements ; consequently pleasures 
must be relegated to the background. 

Wishing for you pleasant weather and a most enjoyable time, I am 

Sincerely yours, 

Edgar R. Champi,in. 



140 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

FROM MOORFIELD STOREY, ESQ; 

Boston, June 3, 1901. 
Messrs. E. P. Dodge, John J. Currier, Nathan N. Withington. 

Geniletnen, — I have your courteous invitation to attend the dinner and 
other exercises, on June 24 and 25, in coniniemoratiou of the incorporation 
of Newburyport, and it would give me the greatest pleasure to do so if my 
other engagements made it possible. 

Unhappily this is not the case. I am so engaged at that time that I 
cannot come to Newburyport, and therefore, with great regret, I must lose 
the opportunity of taking part in a celebration which I think will be most 
interesting to all who are fortunate enough to be present. 

Appreciating the compliment contained in your invitation, I am 
Sincerely yours, 

MooRFiELD Storey. 



FROM HON. A. E. PILLSBURY. 

Boston, June 3. 
Messrs. Dodge, Currier, and Withington, 
Committee. 
Gentlemen, — I have your kind invitation to attend and say something 
at the anniversary dinner. If the program is carried out as arranged the 
people will have heard all they care to from me in the morning, probably, 
and will naturally expect me to be very brief at the table, as I shall prefer 
to be if you find it prudent and necessary to tap my reservoir a second time. 
Very truly yours, 

A. E. PlLLSBURY. 



from rev. a. w. hitchcock. 

Worcester, Mass. 

June 13, 1901. 
Hon. E. p. Dodge, 

Chairman of Committee on Speakers, Newburyport. 

My Dear Mr. Dodge, — I appreciate the honor conferred upon me by 
your committee, and assure you that I am strongly inclined to accept the 
invitation to become the guest of Newburyport and to speak at the dinner 
on Monday. But unfortunately 1 have an appointment in Worcester that 
day which it is not easy to avoid, and I must deny myself the pleasure of 
being with you and rendering my small tribute to the dear old city by 
the sea. 

Thanking you, I am very truly yours, 

Ai^BERT W. Hitchcock. 



city charter of newburyport i4i 

from lieutenant-governor bates. 

Commonwealth of Massachuse'tts. 
Council Chamber, Boston. 

June 12, 1901. 
E. P. Dodge, Esq., Newburyport, Mass. 

My Dear Sir, — I have received the cordial invitation of yourself and 
the committee, as also that extended through Mr. Shaw and Mr. Mills, to 
be present at the semi-centennial celebration of the city of Newburyport, on 
Tuesday, June 24th. Permit me to assure you that it will give me great 
pleasure to join with your citizens on this interesting occasion. 
Yours sincerely, 

John L. Bates. 



FROM MRS. VERMILYE. 

Englewood, June 13. 
Mr. J. J. Currier. 

Dear Sir, — The invitation from the committeeto my husband to partic- 
ipate in the Newburyport celebration arrived yesterday, and whilst thank- 
ing you for the courtesy would reply that my husband is seriously ill, and 
will therefore be unable to accept the invitation. 
Yours truly, 

(Mrs.) Helen DeWitt Vermilye. 



FROM JUDGE LOWELL. 

E. P. Dodge, Esq., Boston, June 4, 1901. 

Newburyport, Mass. 
Dear Sir, — The kind invitation of your committee to attend the com- 
memorative exercises on June 24 next is received, and I regret very much 
that other engagements will keep me in Boston on that day. Were it possi- 
ble for me to come I should certainly do so, but it is absolutely impossible. 
I have a court engagement on that very afternoon. Please express to His 
Honor the mayor, and to the committee, my thanks and my sense of the 
honor conferred upon me. 

Yours very truly, 

Francis C. Lowell. 



FROM WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

Boston, June 18, 1901. 
Dear Sirs, — Mr. W. L. Garrison is in Europe for the summer, and will 
therefore be unable to be present at the Newburyport celebration. 

E. R. Chapman, 

For Mr. Garrison. 



142 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

FROM HON. W. H. MOODY. 

Haverhill, Mass., 
Hon. E. p. Dodge, June 5, 1901. 

Newburyport, Mass. 
My Dear Sir, — I beg leave to acknowledge the letter of your com- 
mittee dated the 31st, ult., inviting me to be present at the literary exercises 
on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of 
Newburyport, to be held on the twenty-fourth of the current month, and to 
make there a brief after-dinner speech. It gives me very great pleasure to 
accept the invitation. May I ask if I shall be called on to respond to any 
particular sentiment ? 



Yours very truly, 

W. H. Moody. 



from mrs. gen. greely. 

Washington, D. C. 

June 20, 1901. 
Dear Mr. Currier. 

I have just discovered that the invitation to General Greely to take 
part in the celebration of the Newburyport anniversary includes another to 
speak at the banquet. 

I regret extremely that this should have been overlooked by me, and 
the early response asked for consequently not sent. 

My husband left home late in May, sailing from San Francisco on the 
1st of June, to inspect his work in the Philippines. He will return to 
Washington the middle of September (D. V.). 

I am sure that General Greely will greatly regret his absence at this 
time. 



Very sincerely yours, 



Henrietta Nesmith Greely. 



FROM REV. A. J. TEELING. 

Lynn, Mass., June 9, 1901. 
Messrs. E. P. Dodge and J. J. Currier. 

My Dear Friends, — I have received your conjoint invitation to give an 
after-dinner speech, of a few minutes' duration, on the occasion of the 
banquet of the fiftieth anniversary. I feel it an honor conferred upon me 
by you, my friends, to say a few words on that happy day, — so jubilant a 
day for Newburyport. You may count on me. 
Yours sincerely, 

A. J. TeelinG. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT I43 



FROM EX-GOVERNOR BOUTWELL. 

Groton, Mass, June i, 1901. 
Sir, — I am honored greatly by the invitation of the city of Newbury- 
port to be present as the guest of the city on the fiftieth anniversary of its 
incorporation. 

I feel compelled to put aside an opportunity which in some of its 
aspects, promises so much. If I admit the truth it is this : A day or even 
hours of ceremony are a burden to me, and I am constrained to avoid cere- 
monial occasions. 

Very truly, 

Geo. S. BoutwelIv. 



FROM HON. ALBERT CURRIER. 

NEWBURYPORT, June 18, 1901. 
Hon. E. p. Dodge. 

Chairman of Committee on Literary Exercises. 
Dear Sir, — Your communication requesting me to make a short speech 
at the dinner of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the incorpora- 
tion of the city government, as a representative of its earlier days, is 

received. 

In reply would saj' that as I am not a public speaker on such occasions 
and that there will be so many who will occupy the time, I earnestly request 
that I may not be called upon for any remarks. 

I have the honor to remain 

Yours, etc., Ai^BERT CuRRiER. 



from secretary long. 

Navy Department, Washington. 
Mr. E. p. Dodge. June 5, 1901. 

Newburyport, Mass. 

Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of your letter of the 31st, ultimo, and I beg 
to thank you for your kind invitation to attend the commemorative exer- 
cises to be held in the city of Newburyport on the occasion of the fiftieth 
anniversary of its incorporation. I regret, however, that it is impossible 
for me to accept, as I have only just returned to the department after several 
weeks' absence, where I find so many important matters have accumulated 
and are awaiting my attention that for the next few weeks I shall not be 
able to make any out-of-town engagements. 

I much appreciate your courtesy, however, and I beg to send my 

cordial good wishes for the occasion, 

Very truly yours, 

John D. Long. 



144 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



FROM HON. HARVEY N. SHEPARD. 



Hon. E. p. Dodge, Boston, June lo, 1901. 

Newburyport, Mass. 
My Dear Mr. Dodge, — I am very greatly obliged by your kind note of 
June 6, and shall be glad to attend the banquet and to speak. 

Very truly yours, 

Harvey N. Shepard. 



from judge o. w. holmes. 

Court House, Boston. 
May 31, 1901. 
E. P. Dodge, Esq., John J. Currier, Esq., 

N. N. WiTHiNGTON, Esq., Committee. 
Dear Sirs, — I regret to say that I shall be unable to attend the banquet 
of the city of Newburyport on June 24, as I have arranged to sail for Europe 
on June 22. 

I understand that the reply to your committee is also a reply to the 
kind invitation of the city. 

Respectfully yours, 

O. W. Holmes. 



FROM HON. W. W. CRAPO. 

New Bedford, Mass., June 6, 1901. 
Hon. E. p. Dodge. 

Dear Sir, — It is not possible for me to attend and take part in your 
semi-centennial exercises. I highly appreciate your invitation, but am so 

situated I cannot accept. 

Yours, 

William W. Crapo. 



from HON. WILLIAM REED. 

Taunton, Mass., June 10, 1901. 
Gentlemen 0/ Com/nitfee,— With thanks for your kind invitation, will 
say that it will give me great pleasure to attend the commemorative banquet 
in my native town and say a few words. 

Yours most sincerely, 

William Reed. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 1 45 

FROM COL. HIGGINSON. 

Cambridge, June i, 1901. 
E. P. Dodge, Esq. 

For Committee on celebration. 
Dear Sir, — The letter of your committee of May 31st, to my brother- 
in-law, Col. T. W. Higginson, inviting him to be present and make an 
address at Newburyport, on the occasion of the commemorative exercises to 
be held on June 24th and 25th, in that city, is received. I think it would 
give Col. Higginson great pleasure to accept your polite invitation were he 
at home. But he is at present traveling in Europe with his family, and is 
not expected home until late next October. 
I am with much respect. 

Yours very truly, 

FRANCIii S. ThACHER. 



FROM GEORGE F. STONE, ESQ. 

Chicago, June 10, 1901. 
Hon. E. P. Dodge. 

Dear Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
esteemed favor of the 4th, instant, and also that of the committee of the 
same date, inclosing invitation from the city of Newburyport to attend the 
commemorative exercises to be held on the 24th and 25th, instant. 

I sincerely regret that I am unable to accept the courteous invitation 
of the committee to attend the banquet. Please present to the members of 
the committee my thanks for the invitation. 

Faithfully Yours, 

George F. Stone. 



FROM SENATOR HOAR. 

Worcester, Mass., June i, 1901. 
E. P. Dodge, John J. Currier, N. N. Withington, 
Committee. 
Gentlemen, — I am very sorry that it will not be in my power to attend 
the celebration at Newburyport on the 24th of June. I should like very 
much to meet the people of your beautiful and thriving city, and to hear 
Mr. Pillsbury, who is always so well worth hearing. But I am prevented 
by pressure of other duties, which I cannot well resist. 
I am, with high regard. 

Faithfully Yours, 

Geo. F. Hoar. 
19 



146 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

FROM GOVERNOR CRANE. 

C0MMONWEA1.TH OF Massachusetts. 
Executive Department. 
Hon. E. P. DoDGK. Boston, June 4, 1901. 

Newburyport, Mass. 

My Dear St'r, — Your kind letter of the 31st, instant, received, and I 
thank your committee for inviting me to attend the celebration of the 
fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Newburyport on the 
24th of June. I assure you that I should like to participate in this celebra- 
tion, but as at the present time I do not see how I can possibly do so I shall 
have to ask you to excuse me. For several weeks after the legislature 
adjourns my time will be so much taken up with the inspection of state 
institutions and other ofiicial duties that I do not feel able to take upon 
myself any further obligations. 

In declining your invitation, therefore, and which I do with sincere 
regret, I beg to be permitted to extend to your people my best wishes for 
the continued prosperity of their city, and to remain 

Yours very truly, 

W. M. Crank. 



